


Hiding From The Media

by pixiiedust



Series: HFTM [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, Angst, Coming Out, F/M, Famous Harry, Fluff, M/M, Non-Famous Louis, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-28
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2017-11-27 08:20:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 83,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/659838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixiiedust/pseuds/pixiiedust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry Styles is an international superstar in one of UKs biggest boybands at the moment. But he's been forced to keep his relationship with Louis Tomlinson - the everyday Uni student - a secret because management say it could ruin the bands career if his sexuailty is outed to the public.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Louis had just finished his last lesson of college and was on his way home; despite it nearing the end of May it was still a cold day and Louis was attempting to wrap up more inside his burgundy hoodie as he made the walk home. It hadn’t been that cold this morning and he hadn’t dressed for the occasion, although he should have known that when it came to English weather he should always wear something warm.

He was beginning to regret his decision of not staying in during his free period to wait for a lift home, the walk to his house seeming a million miles away as he turned into a quiet street that would take him closer to his warm house. Louis sometimes wished he still lived in Doncaster on days like this, because back home it’d only been a 5 minute walk to and from his college whereas it now took almost 40 minutes to walk home; he also wished he could drive but he had to save money to do that.

He was currently walking down one of the main streets of Holmes Chapel, one that held a few shops and cafes. Making him more depressed because they were in the warmth while he was walking in the cold; at the end of the street held a bakery which Louis had passed it many times without a second glance, but when the sign in the window read ‘hot tea and coffee now on sale’ he couldn’t resist it and decided to treat himself to a cup.

Opening the door and stepping inside the small bakery Louis found himself been hit by a shield of warmth that made him want to sign in contentment. The bakery was empty, and the only sign of life was the small sound of someone whistling a tune out back. 

Louis walked up to the counter and tapped lightly on the class case that showed off the cakes and pastries the bakery had to offer; the whistling stopped and Louis heard the sound of feet shuffling across floor.

From the door to the left came what Louis could only describe as someone sculptured by angels; the man, or boy, had to be the most beautiful boy Louis had ever seen. Louis knew he can’t be very old, with him working here then Louis guessed he was about 16 at the most, probably just finished his GCSEs which were why he could work a shift on a weekday.

His face held the babyish charms that spoke his youth, but Louis could already tell that once this boy had finished with puberty he would be setting everyone’s hearts on fire. He had a mop of brown curls on his head that Louis had the urge to just reached out and sweep his hands through to see if they were as soft as they appeared. 

The guy smiled when he noticed Louis stood at the counter and Louis noticed that it was a big beautiful smile that showed of two dimples on either side of his mouth; two dimples Louis wouldn’t mind kissing over and over again. He also noticed the brilliant set of green eyes, they almost seemed to sparkle and Louis felt like he’d be able to get sucked into them rather easily and just stand their staring.

The lad coughed and brought Louis from his trance, making him realise he was now stood directly in front of him. He wore a smirk like he knew Louis had been staring at him and Louis begged his cheeks not to heat up.

“Hi, I’m Harry what can I get for you?”


	2. Chapter One, Goodbye Summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis' running late for class on his first day back after forgetting to set his alarm. While Harry sits alone and thinks back to the Summer.

Louis was running late for his first class of the new term; he’d forgotten to set his alarm and he had class in 10 minutes. Quickly as possible he attempted to get ready, pulling on his favourite pair of red skinny jeans and a loose black and white striped shirt. He didn’t have time for anything to eat, but grabbed his wallet so he’d be able to grab something after class.

He really didn’t fancy turning up late on the first day back, rather walk in looking like a mess than late so he skipped gelling his hair back into the new quiff style he’d been sporting recently, and just dragged his fingers through his fringe to create a messy swoop across his forehead.

He had a small stubble forming since he’d last shaved two days ago, but decided that if he were attempt a quick shave now then he’d probably end up cutting half his face up so it wasn’t for the best. His messenger bag was in the hallway - Louis having packed it ready for today the night before – along with his converse and hoodie he’d be wearing.

He shoved his feet in his converse as he rummaged through his bag looking for some gum that he could chew on since he didn’t have time to brush his teeth but he’d rather not breathe on anyone and have them faint from his morning breathe.

Once he’d found the gum he pulled on his hoodie and grabbed his keys from the hook they were hanging from before almost running from the apartment and down to the car park to his car. 

The campus from his place wasn’t very far, only a 10 minute walk at the most and Louis had vowed to always walk to class unless he had somewhere else to be afterwards, but since he was running late he decided to break this vow because he needed to get here asap. 

Luckily for Louis there was a small car park right besides the English building which was empty at this time of the morning save a few of the teachers cars. Grabbing his phone from the cup holder and reading that he had 3 minutes before the lesson began he made a quick exit from his car, flinging his bag over his shoulder and pressing the automatic lock on his keys to lock the car while running into the building.

Once again he counted his lucky stars that the lecture wasn’t on the top floor as he subtly ran down the corridor to the Literature Lecture Hall which was on the ground floor. Walking in he realised he had a minute spare and the place hadn’t quite filled up just yet, spotting Eleanor straight away, tucked away in a corner nearer the top he headed in her direction. The seat besides her holding her bag which she moved when he arrived, sending him a smile when he sat down but the teacher walked in before they could say anything else.

-

An hour and half later and Louis was pouring out the lecture theatre along with the rest of the students who’d been in there with him. He’d just spent the entire time taking notes on the books and poems they’d be looking at this year, as much as he loved Literature he much preferred the seminars to the lectures because of the small groups and you were doing more work than just taking notes from what the teacher told you.

Louis didn’t have another lesson for an hour and 40 minutes now, so when his stomach made the sound of a small lion he decided to take trip to the coffee shop on campus and see what they had for him to eat. 

“You fancy coming to the coffee shop with me, skipped breakfast this morning and I’m utterly starving.” Louis asked El as they both left the English building. He knew she didn’t have another lesson yet because they both had exactly the same ones.

“Going on then, it’s not like I have anything better to do for the next hour.” She replied with a smile.

“Want to put your bag in my car then? Save you carrying around all your books?” Louis asked as he opened up the boot of his car to chuck in his bag once he’d got his wallet and phone to put in his pockets. El quickly placed her bag in their as well after taking her phone out to put in her pocket, not bothering with anything else since she’d ate early so wouldn’t want anything from the coffee shop.

Feeling lazy for having driven to college Louis wasn’t planning on driving to the coffee house, it was only a 15 minute walk to where it was situated in the middle quad of campus so the pair set off on foot.

“How come you were almost late to the lecture this morning then?” El asked, linking her arm through Louis’ as they walked down the path. Since it’d started almost as soon as Louis had got in and seated the pair hadn’t had chance to talk.

“Woke up late because been me, I’d forgot to set the alarm; and you’d got up early to head to the library before class so you hadn’t been in the flat to wake me up.” Louis replied, with a smile.

The pair started up a conversation about the New Year of Uni, and before they knew it they’d made it to the warm coffee shop. It wasn’t really cold out, but after walking for 15 minutes in October you were always ready to get inside, well in England you were anyway.

Inside the café was a bunch of Louis’ other friends, who waved the pair over straight away. In the bunch was also Stan Lucas, him and Louis had been best friends in Secondary School; but when Louis had moved to Holmes Chapel a few years back him and Stan had almost floated apart.

The two had always kept in touch, but Louis had friends in Holmes and Stan had friends in Doncaster so they didn’t speak as much as before. But Stan had been the only one from his old college in Doncaster coming to Manchester Uni, and all of Louis’ friends from Holmes had either got apprenticeships or jobs after College rather than head on to higher education so the pair had got friendly once more and stuck with each other for the first few weeks.

Stan was studying Computer Engineering and Louis was studying English which meant neither of them had classes together, and they also weren’t sharing dorms since you were placed with people from your subject. Louis had met El and Stan had meet guys in his classes and the pair found themselves growing apart once again.

Now they were in second year they were still friends, Louis wasn’t known to be a silent, shy guy and had made friends with all of Stan’s mates. But he only tended to mix with them during parties or if they bumped into each other, rather preferred sticking with El and people from his English classes.

“Ah here come the lovebirds.” Stan spoke loudly when he spotted the pair, waving them over to join them. “Haven’t seen you two since we got back.” He added on the end, standing up to greet Louis with there usual handshake come high five and give El a small one sided hug.

“We’ve only been back a weekend, and we had to get the new place sorted and unpack everything.” Louis told him, the only seat left was an oversized arm chair which luckily both he and El fit into, although it was a bit of a tight squeeze.

“Oh yeah forgot you’d got some posh place just outside campus, what’s the new love pad like then?” Stan asked, a smirk on his face as Louis rolled his eyes, he was use to the jokes by now.

“It’s really nice, thanks for asking Stan. Lou’s boyfriend found us a nice place.” El replied with a sweet smile, she wasn’t that keen on Stan. She put up with him because he was friends with her best friend; but sometimes she found him a bit too annoying, especially when he joked about her and Louis hooking up.

“Ah yes, this guy Louis is apparently having sex with but we’ve never actually met.” Stan spoke; sometimes Stan questioned Louis’ relationship. He knew Louis was into guys, he’d been to the parties back in Doncaster where Louis would hook up with random dudes. 

Louis had always been the party animal, and Stan had been looking forward to the fun nights they’d be having together when they got to Uni. But ever since they started Louis had always stated he was in a relationship and he was staying faithful to his boyfriend; he didn’t stop partying, but he no longer had random hook ups with handsome men and he often passed up a party to go see his fella.

Louis had never been one for a long term relationship; before he’d moved his longest had been 2 months so Stan couldn’t believe it when Louis claimed he’d been dating his boyfriend for over a year when he started Uni, and he hadn’t broken up with him yet when they were nearing three years. Stan hadn’t believed Louis at first, thought his relationship was a joke, but when his friend insisted that it wasn’t then he started to believe.

But it was now the beginning of 2nd year and Stan had yet to meet Louis’ boyfriend; Louis claimed he lived in London, that he’d had a job lined up when he’d finished his GCSEs and gone straight up there. Which Stan could understand, he’d go to London for a job if it meant no more education, he understand that could be the reason he never came to visit. But what he couldn’t understand was that he’d never seen a picture of him.

Most couples would have a picture of themselves and the boyfriend/girlfriend somewhere; most of his other friends in relationships had a picture set as their wallpaper on their phones whereas Louis’ phone wallpaper was always some funny cartoon. Then whenever Stan had visited Louis’ dorm last year he’d never had any pictures on his walls or on his desk; he only had pictures of him with friends and family pinned up and then a few magazine cut outs of that English band One Direction which Stan though Louis had a crush on.

Because of this Stan doubted Louis had a boyfriend, he didn’t know why Louis would lie but he found it weird that the only person who claimed to have seen Louis’ boyfriend was Eleanor; but then she didn’t even give any information out. No one even knew the name of Louis’ boyfriend.

“Oh here we go again, with the ‘I think you’re lying and don’t have a boyfriend’ jokes and looks, it’s getting old man” Louis told him, before ordering himself a cup of tea and some pancakes.

“I wouldn’t make them if you’d just introduce the guy; I mean are you really that ashamed of us?” Stan inquired, Louis rolled his eyes once again at the very familiar conversation he usually ended up having with Stan whenever his boyfriend was mentioned.

“I’ve told you he needs to keep a low profile cause of his line of work, his bosses are abit homophobic and his work involves another 3 men’s careers and he’s got to think of them as well.” Louis replied, it was practically the truth. But Stan just rolled his eyes and muttered a whatever and Louis knew he was thinking ‘That’s the biggest load of bullshit ever’

-

Harry was already tired and it wasn’t even noon yet, they were practically booked all week what with the release of Live While We’re Young approaching along with the Radio 1 Teen Awards he knew the next few weeks – or more likely months – were going to get a lot busier.

He had a meeting with management today, and Harry wasn’t looking forward to this. Meetings with management were always what he hated the most, cause he never got what he wanted. The first few times he’d been called in for meetings he’d always hoped it was to talk about him finally been able to have an open relationship with his boyfriend, but 2 years later and it was still a secret and Harry had given up any hope.

Harry and management didn’t get on at all, Harry had signed the contract with them as soon as him and the boys had finished in x-factor; and at first he’d been ecstatic about it, until they started controlling everything and making Harry feel less and less like himself and more like a puppet on strings.

Harry leaned against the window and closed his eyes, thinking back to the summer he’d had. It’d been a good one, filled with lots of good memories. 

Him and the boys finished the USA tour at the beginning of July, it’d been such an amazing experience, they’d never expected to ever be as big as they are. They’d wanted to have success in America but they thought they’d have to wait several years before that, wait until they’d had a few number ones in England and been established at home first. But they’d set records, been the first UK band to have debut album go to number one in the states; sold out a complete tour in a few minutes and drawn millions of fans in for their appearance.

After the tour they’d been given a short break to have some down time and flow over to a small, quite area of France to spend time with his boyfriend and not be disturbed by fans or paparazzi. He’d also managed to get his mum and step dad over for a few days to see them before he knew he’d be through back into work.

Once back in England, his boyfriend headed back down north to see his own family since he hadn’t had chance after flying out with Harry practically straight as his Uni year was ending. Harry dived straight back into the recording studio, all four of them on a tight schedule if they wanted to get the album done and ready for shops by the end of the year. The boys would often spend 12+ hours in the studio at once sometimes.

They were making sure their focus was on the recording, although they did manage to get a few gigs at the end of July in the North at a few festival type gigs, which gave Harry the chance to see his family and friends; and his boyfriend came to see him before coming back to London with him, the pair had to be careful and make sure they didn’t run into the paps cause although management said they could play it off as a friend, they’d really just not have to say anything at all.

August had brought along more recording, but also the biggest gig One Direction would ever play ‘The Closing Ceremony of The Olympic Games’ Harry remembers the hype around the Olympics, he’d loved it all; even managing to get tickets for him and his boyfriend – along with their best friends so if any fans or paps were looming pictures it looked like a outing – to watch Tom Daley get his bronze medal.

Harry had been extremely nervous about the closing ceremony, so nervous that he’d phone management and said he didn’t think he could get through it without been sick and that he wanted to withdrawal. He didn’t know what had made him so nervous, he thought his confidence had grown and that he’d got over his stage fright; but he felt worse than when he’d screwed up Red or Black, and when he’d been hit with the sudden stage fright during his x factor days. It’d been that sick that it’d taking management getting his mum, sister and boyfriend tickets so they could come down and convince him to perform.

He’d managed to get through the gig without making a mistake or throwing up and he was so proud of himself for it. After the Olympics came the VMAs, another massive gig for them; they’d never expected to be invited so when they got the chance to perform and also win three awards they’d felt like they were on top of the world.

Harry had also managed to persuade his management to let is boyfriend fly out for the award show, they’d agreed and no one had even blinked an eye at the stranger sat behind him and just thought it was some regular dude in the audience. And to celebrate his big win - and also because Uni would be starting again soon which meant less time to see one another – he’d flew himself and his boyfriend off to a small, practically deserted island which was hot and aloud them to sunbathe, drink cocktails and use PDA without worrying about fans or paparazzi showing up.

After their holiday they’d flown back to the UK, spending the rest of the weekend locked away in Harry’s flat before he’d gone back to Manchester for Uni and Harry had been thrown back into the work load.

So here Harry was, sat in the back of a blacked out car getting driven to the managements office and missing his boyfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heres the firts chapter, i'll post chapter two tomorrow. i've currently got up to chapter 4 written so they'll all be up in the next few days and then the updates will become weekly like they do for my tumblr :)


	3. Chapter Two, The Adam Burridge Concert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis and Harry go to see the Adam Burridge and James Arthur gig , and Louis ends up getting punched

It was bigger than Louis had suspected when he’d been told about the small, intimate gig; but with the amount of people that had managed to pack themselves into the pub was making it feel smaller. The place smelt like beer and smoke, but Louis was no stranger to the smell as he often worked behind the bar and collected glasses at his dad’s local pub on a weekend. His dad knew the manager so if Louis ever needed a spare bit of cash – and didn’t want to ask his boyfriend who despite having millions of pounds stashed in his bank Louis always felt guilty for asking for some – he could always rely on his dad to get him some shifts; and it didn’t mean anything when Louis dropped off the space of the earth every now and then.

The gig wasn’t due to start for another half hour, and people were still piling in. Louis and El had arrived about 45 minutes ago after been warned that it might get busy with all the people wanted to watch the gig along with the pubs regulars. The pair where here to see James Arthur and Adam Burridge, contents of this years X Factor, Louis and El had been fans of both boys and were thrilled when James got through, but sadly Adam had to rely on the vote of the public as he was an x factor wild card. That’s why he was doing this gig, to try get more votes; and although Louis had already voted multiple times this week he still was here to enjoy Adam’s music.

El appeared by his side once again, the pair had found an alright spot, midway from the stage and the bar. They hadn’t been any tables left when they arrived so they had to stand; and with it become increasingly busier they agreed that one would stay in the spot while the other went to get the drinks. El handed Louis his beer bottle and took a sip of her own Vodka and Coke but someone behind her bumped into her causing her to jerk forward and almost spill it down herself and over the floor.

“Hey watch it will you.” Louis replied, turning round to face a big beefy guy, one with sleeve tattoos and a shaved head; Louis knew he could probably knock him out with just one slap but working in a pub had given him courage against men like him.

“Oh what, is she your lady? Did she almost get some of her drink down her designer top.” the man teased, his voice held a strong cocky accent and his facial expressions held a look that said ‘don’t mess with me’

“She isn’t my lady, and yeah you almost knocked her drink all down her so you best be careful next time because my friend doesn’t want to have Vodka down her because of some scumbag like yourself.” Louis replied, keeping a mutual facial expression as he crossed his arms over his chest. When he’d confronted the man about El he hadn’t planned an argument, he’d just wanted the man to say sorry and then for them to continue on the way they had been; but he wasn’t the type of person who’d back down from a fight.

“Oh I understand now, your one of those puffs aren’t you. One of those little weirdoes’s that likes it up the arse.” The man sneered, practically making Louis’ blood boil. He hated when people made remarks about his sexuality, he could take anything but when they mentioned his sexual preferences then he was willing to get in a fight.

“For the record I believe it’s my boyfriend that likes it up the arse; and honestly I bet if you ever tried it then you’d enjoy it up the arse as well. Now I want you to apologise to my friend because I wasn’t planning on things turning ugly around here.” Louis spoke coolly, folding his arms across his chest.

“Is that suppose to be a threat, are you trying to threaten me because honestly twinkle toes you’ll be sorry.” The main replied, his face turning into a nasty expression, but Louis still didn’t flinch although he heard the small mutter of leave it escape El’s mouth.

“I wasn’t trying to threaten you, I was merely sticking up for my friend; there’s a difference.” Louis replied in a nonchalant tone and he heard El take in a breathe from beside him.

“RIGHT THAT’S IT YOU LITTLE FAGGOT.” The man shouted, his hand shooting forward towards Louis’ face so fast Louis didn’t have time to think, hitting him square in the eye causing him to stumble back into the people who’d been stood in front of them. He heard El practically scream and the people he’d fallen into let out groans. But Louis didn’t pay attention as the man had now practically jumped on him, sending him onto the floor. His fist came down again, but this time Louis managed to dodge the punch and instead the man hit the floor beneath them. He didn’t flinch though, just aimed another punch, hitting Louis in the nose causing another squeal to drop from El’s mouth.

“What on earth is this, break it up right now.” Louis heard the voice of the barman who’d served him earlier along with footsteps approaching and he’s sure he heard a few people murmur the name Harry Styles. Two strong arms managed to lift the man from on top of Louis who just lay still on the floor, he could feel his eye throbbing and the blood trickling from his nose as the barman yelled at the beefy guy to leave the pub cause he was official bared. 

He stayed on the floor without attempting to even sit up or move with his eyes shut to try block out the pain forming, but the slow drawl of a voice spoke out to him, telling him to get up and grabbing his arms to help. He opened his eyes to the face of Harry Styles; he kept a tight hold of the pop star as he slowly got to his feet, but almost falling back down when he set his feet on the ground and he’d probably have been back on the floor if it wasn’t for Harry’s arms around him.

“Come on let’s go get you cleaned up.” he spoke, practically dragging Louis away with him and nodding at El to follow him as the three left the crowd of people staring at them and through the back door.

“My eye hurts.” Louis mumbled, he was feeling sleepy now and let his head come down to lie on top of the curly haired pop stars shoulder.

“How much has he had to drink?” he heard Harry speak as he closed his eyes and let himself be practically carried to where ever he was been taking.

“Not much, maybe 2 beers. The man just bumped into me and my drink almost spilt down me; he turned around to tell the man to watch out, I don’t think he was expecting some big guy, I think he just wanted an apology which the man wasn’t going to give. Louis doesn’t back down though and the man just pounced on him.” El explained, and suddenly Louis was been seated in a seat and soft hands were touching his face. 

“Can you get me some tissues, I think we need to clean up this blood before anything else.” And he hears the sound of footsteps walking away. He’s feeling a headache form and he think it’s due to the impact of the punch his eye had received; he’s had his eyes shut for the majority of the time since standing up but he opens them now to look at the singer looking after him.

-

The pub was crowded, Harry honestly hadn’t expected this many people to turn up for an intimate gig. He could see people piling into the pub from his spot behind the stage; he wasn’t sure they could hold many more people because the place seemed bursting already. Harry wasn’t sure if the people here were all to see James and Adam, or if it was only a few along with regulars; either way the pair had got a great crowd and if on the off chance any of the regulars did watch xfactor but not know who to vote for then Adam was in with a good chance.

“Hey Harry, the owner was wondering if he could possibly have a quick word with you. He knows it’s busy so he said he won’t be long. If you just slip out the back door he should be done before you are even spotted.” Came the voice of Adam, Harry nodded and headed off while Adam went to get set up some more.

Harry knew that by the end of the gig someone would have probably found out he was here and the pap’s would be waiting when he left the venue; so it didn’t make difference to him if he was spotted later or earlier. Sure he’d like to stay away from the spotlight since this was Adam and James’ night; but he was always willing to get photos or sign stuff for fans.

He slipped out the back door but no one took any notice of him, to busy talking or making sure they didn’t get squashed too much to notice the curly haired pop star sneaking out the back door. The man working behind the counter Harry knew was the owner; he smiled and excused himself from the man he’d been talking to previously before nodding his head in the direction of the door behind the bar for Harry to follow. Harry headed that way but suddenly the sound of a large bang sounded through the pub along with the words ‘RIGHT THAT’S IT YOU LITTLE FAGGOT’ which were a clear indication of a fight having broken out.

The owner was over the counter and heading towards it in a millisecond, and Harry wasn’t far behind; his curiosity making him forget he was a celebrity for minute. He heard a few murmurs of his name, but now his attention was on the big beefy guy who was in the arms of the owner, and the guy on the floor that he’d clearly been punching. 

The barman was yelling at the guy to get out, but Harry paid no attention; just kept his eyes trained on the blooded nose and rapidly forming black eye. He scooped down to help the boy with the quiff to his feet to help get him cleaned up, he was unsteady on his feet but Harry kept his arms locked around him as he gestured for the brunette friend to follow them backstage.

He asked her about him, if he was drunk or not; but she just told Harry it’d been a misunderstanding that Louis had been on the wrong end of. Backstage was busy, people everywhere attempting to get the gig set up, but luckily he found a seat quickly, ushering Eleanor off for some tissues as he helped Louis take a seat, running his hands over Louis’ face to inspect the damage.

The boy opened his eyes, blue staring into green, although the blue eyes looked sleepy and his eyelids were heavy. He was clearly tired, the affects of the beer and getting punched making him sleepy.

“Honestly what have we got here then.” Harry spoke softly with a small chuckle as the pad of his thumb rubbed across the swollen skin of Louis’ eye.

“He called me a fagot Haz.” Louis mumbled, a put forming on his lips as his eyelids began dropping once more.

“Aw babe, we both know he’s just a dickhead, probably jealous you have someone and he doesn’t” Harry replied with a soft tone, stoking Louis’ face softly. He knew his boyfriend hated words like that, that he was always willing to take anything that got thrown at him; but mention his sexuality or belittle him just because he fell in love with a guy, that’s when Louis would snap.

He’d had fights with guys twice his side just because they’d made a snide remark about his sexual preferences, that was why Harry was cautious about his relationship with Louis coming out. Harry knew that even when management did give them the go ahead that he’d have to make sure Louis was 100% okay with. He knew they’d be hate and he didn’t know how well Louis would take that hate. Louis stood for so much; he believed that no one should ever be judged about who they fell into bed with at night, that you weren’t any different if you’d rather spend your life with someone of the same sex than you. That was one of the things Harry loved about Louis, his beliefs.

-

Once they’d managed to get Louis’ nose cleaned up and some cream on his eye to try soothing the pain; him and Eleanor decided to watch the rest of the concert from backstage. Louis kept to Harry’s side the majority of the night; no one batted an eyelash at the boy that had his arm linked through Harry’s.

Louis and El also got the chance to meet James and Adam, who were great lads and the pair got along great with; El seeming to get along extra well with Adam as Louis didn’t miss the singer slipping her a piece of paper containing his number.

Harry stayed until the end of the concert and even after since the owner had came to see him and recommended he stay until the place was empty to leave the pub, not wanting him to hounded by fans who by know knew he was in there. Adam and James opted to stay and leave along with Harry despite knowing they’d be mass amount of paparazzi.

Louis and El stayed as well, Harry had told them they should stay at his place for the night instead of attempting to get back to Manchester tonight since it was already 11; plus Harry wanted to make sure Louis’ eye didn’t swell too much. Louis had a key to Harry’s place so he and El could have headed back early but decided against it. They all doubted that the paps would even bat an eyelash at Louis and El, they could easily be friends of Adam or James, or they could easily have been working at the pub.

It was around quarter to twelve when they left the pub, Harry taking the lead because of the paparazzi while the other hung back. This was Louis’ first encounter with the paparazzi, and his first thing that popped into his head was how crap he’d luck with the swollen eye and crooked nose; he was also wobbly on his feet slightly, having to keep his arm linked with El’s for support since he no longer had Harry.

The paparazzi were shouting things, he could hear stuff like ‘who’s your new friends’ and ‘is that a new possible girlfriend’ but he ignored them all, and so did Harry who only spoke out to say positive things about Adam, telling them to make sure they voted to get Adam his place on the show that he deserved. They continued on down the block, the paparazzi shouting and flashes hitting there faces, Harry kept a bright smile on his face which Louis admired; he doesn’t know how Harry can manage to put up with them all the time.

Once they turned the corner they were greeted by big men dressed in black, Harry said Hi to them all so Louis guessed they were part of his security team; in fact he even recognised a few, the face of Paul standing out as he ushered Adam and James into one car, with Louis and El been pushed towards the car for Harry. Louis was unable to see the paparazzi anymore, didn’t know if they’d got pictures of them getting into Harry’s car instead of Adams; but as he settled beside Harry in the car he honestly didn’t care. His only thoughts were of getting to cuddle with his boyfriend as he slept that night, getting to do the one thing he missed most about attend Uni while Harry travelled the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heres the new chapter, i've got two more until i'm up to date, and chapter three will be out tomorrow and then chapter 4 the next day :) and thank you for everyone who left kudos so far


	4. Chapter Three, Meet Everyone Else

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The other boys finally make an apperance

Harry had always been a light sleeper so it wasn’t a surprise that he woke up to the soft sound of feet walking around his house. He knew it’d probably be his band mates, the 3 had now taking it upon themselves to show up at his place every morning and wait for him to cook them breakfast. Harry really didn’t want to get up, but he knew the boys would probably just get louder – or worse barge into his room – and he was never one of those who could just lay back down and fall asleep after been woke anyway.

Slowly and quietly as he could physical manage he slid from Louis’ embrace not wanting to wake his sleeping boyfriend. Luckily he managed to succeed in this, as Louis simply rolled over and curled into Harry’s pillow without so much as a flutter from his eye lids. Harry was glad to realise that the swelling around his eye had gone down drastically, now leaving just a yellow/purple mark in its place.

Slipping over to his chest of drawers he pulled out a pair of clean underwear to wear; he may feel comfortable walking around naked but he didn’t feel like putting his best friends through that first thing in a morning. They may say there use to it by now but he wasn’t stupid and knew they’d rather see him in some form of clothing.

He managed to exit the room without the older boy even stirring and he let out a sigh of relief as he headed for his kitchen where he found his 3 crazy band mates all sat around his table like it wasn’t weird for them to be here at 9am.

“You guys are getting here earlier and earlier.” Harry moaned, slumping over the table and letting his head fall into his hands.

“Mate it’s nine in the morning, it’s the time you should be up to be honest.” Niall retorts back with that natural cheeky grin of his plastered on his face.

“Maybe for you, but I didn’t get in until around half one last night.” Harry moaned, taking a seat in one of the bar stools beside Zayn.

“We know mate, there’s already a few pictures of you arriving at Adam’s gig last night so we guessed you’ll have stayed till the end.” Liam tells his curly haired friend, already eating a bowl of some cereal which he’d found in Harry’s cupboard.

“When aren’t my pictures online?” was his simple answer. He knew the images would be up there, because honestly he could hardly turn his computer on without seeing the new images of him. He was the most pictured out of all the boys, and honestly it annoyed him sometimes. He wasn’t the only one in the band, but it seemed like that sometimes; he was always the one in the headlines or the one been pictured out and about.

After a minute or two of silence Harry finally got back up out of his seat to flick the kettle on to make him and the everyone a cup of tea before even thinking about what to make for breakfast.

A quiet sound of footsteps drew Harry’s attention to the doorway as Eleanor walked in; she had a shy sheepish smile on her face like she didn’t know if it was okay to come in. She’d spent the night in Harry’s guest room after the gig and because she wasn’t prepared to be spending the night in London she was wearing one of Harry’s top that was big for him so practically covered her entire body. So to any outsiders she probably looked like a girl who’d spent the night at her boyfriends.

None of the boys had ever met El because honestly why would they have? She was just Louis’ best friend and Harry had only met her a bunch of times when visiting Louis or on the one of occasion when management had allowed Harry and Louis to go somewhere but only if they brought friends along.

Harry liked the girl, she was like Louis with a bubbly sense of humour and he could have a laugh with her; he appreciated that she was there for Louis when he couldn’t be, like when management would link him to several girls in one night he always knew she’d be comforting him back home. He had the lads for himself; they would make him feel better when he was away from home a lot and missing Louis. Louis deserved that too and he was glad he had Eleanor for that.

So Harry smiled at her, his kind smile that he reserved for comfort. He knew she was probably slightly uncomfortable been around 3 lads she’d never met before, and one that she wasn’t exactly bffs with. He just sent her a look that indicated for her to take a seat, which she did with a small smile to the boys who were sat looking confused at the girl seating at the table.

Liam gave him a pointed look, almost like he was questioning weather he’d slept with the girl that was half naked and sitting at his kitchen table. But before he could say anything Louis came stumbling into the kitchen, yawning loudly and wearing only a pair of Harry’s boxers, which immediately wiped any doubt from Liam’s face, although to be fair Liam never thought his friend would cheat anyway. Not when he adored Louis as much as he did.

Louis immediately wandered over to Harry, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s torso and resting his head against his chest since he was still feeling tired.

“How’s your eye?” Harry asked softly, letting his thumb graze the bruised skin slightly.

“Better than last night.” Louis mumbled back, his voice thick with sleep, behind Harry the kettle boiled which Louis took as a sign to distangle himself and head to the table to take a seat. He shot a smile in the direction of the boys and said a quiet morning to El as he sat in the only seat available which was beside her.

“How’d you like your cuppa El?” Harry asked as he poured the freshly boiled water into 6 cups already containing a tea bag.

“Just a small bit of milk please.” She replied back, with Louis adding onto the end that she took it the way it should be made. Harry rolled his eyes as he set about making the 6 different cups, Liam liked his with 5 sugars and practically drowning in milk, Niall liked his with what he called an average amount of milk and 3 sugars, Louis and El both just liking a bit of milk and Zayn liked his with no milk and no sugar, just a black cup of tea.

Once he’d made all 6 cups, his with milk and 2 sugars, and Liam had helped him carry them to the table - since he was such a puppy dog that he just had help- Harry joined them, although there wasn’t much conversation flowing. He thought this might be because the boys might not know what to say in front of El since she was new.

With there only been 5 seats at the table Harry quickly wrapped his arms around Louis waist which allowed him to lift him up and take back his seat before letting Louis rest on his lap.

“So what happened to your eye mate?” Zayn asked after a beat, taking a sip on the boiling hot tea which made Harry wonder how on earth he didn’t burn his mouth.

“Just some dickhead at the bar last night, he bumped into El and got nasty when I confronted him about it.” Louis replied with a shrug of his shoulders like it was no big deal, which in his eyes it wasn’t.

“It looks real nasty mate, honestly some guys can get nasty when they’re drunk.” Niall piped in, leaning in closer like he wanted a better look at the bruise.

“Should have seen it last night, it was twice its size and I had a croaked nose as well.” Louis told him, but his tone wasn’t spiteful more jokey. 

“Bloody hell.” Niall replied, eyes widening almost comically.

“its fine, had my personal nurse here to take care of me.” Louis told him, leaning back into Harry and patting his curls fondly.

“So you guys met up at the concert last night?” Liam asked always the most curious about things that never really mattered.

“Yeah, I’d gone out to see the landlord when the fight broke out so I just took him backstage with me.” Harry replied with a smile as Louis snuggled back into him further.

-

2 hours later and it was time Louis head back to Manchester much to Harry’s protests. They were in the hallway of Harry’s house with there arms wrapped around each other in a goodbye hug, the other boys had retreated back to the lounge and El was already in the car so they could have a moment alone.

“I really don’t want you to leave.” Harry murmured, his face buried into the crook of Louis’ neck.

“I know, and I don’t want to leave either babe. But I got classes in the morning and you’ve got work with the boys.” Louis replied, his head on Harry’s shoulders. It was always the same when they had to leave, they’d just stand in each others arms saying over and over about how they wanted to stay. That’s why they didn’t see each other as one off’s much, preferred to see each other for longer than a day because they hated saying goodbye but it was slightly easier after spending several days together.

“I know I just really hate it when you have to leave.” Harry told him, wrapping his arms tighter around Louis’ waist despite it been practically impossible for there bodies to be any closer than right now.

“I hate it too, but we’ll see each other again soon. I mean it’s already nearly November and then I finish Uni for Christmas in the December; and with all the album promotion you’ll be doing in the next couple month’s time will fly by. Plus you said yourself you’ll be coming up to Manchester a few times so we can find away to see each other then, it’ll be fine babe.” Louis told Harry, stroking his fingers through the curls to reassure the younger boy. Sure it was hard leaving one another, but they did see each other as much as they possibly could and they were always trying to Skype, text or ring each other.

“I know but it still sucks either way.” Harry mumbled, attempting to bury himself further into Louis’ neck. Louis just nodded at this, tightening his grip on Harry. They said nothing else for another minute until they broke apart, loosening the hug slightly so they could share one last kiss before Louis had to leave. It wasn’t a heated kiss because neither of them would be able to resist stumbling back to Harry’s room and ripping clothes from each others bodies; not it didn’t included tongues, it was just a simple mouth on mouth kiss that was to show each other there love and how much they’d miss each other.

When they broke apart they both whispered an ‘I love you’ before Harry was watching him leave the building, leaned against the front door as the car he’d hired left his driveway. He trudged back into the living room to join his band mates, a vacant expression on his face as he curled up on one end of his sofa.

“Have you asked management about maybe letting you guys come out yet?” Liam asked after a minute of silence, the boys looking at Harry with sympathy since they were all well aware of how much Harry loved and cared for the elder boy who’d just had to leave in a blacked out car in case anyone saw it leaving Harry’s place.

“What’s the point, we all know there just homophobic twats that only care about making money of us; they’ll never let me and Lou have an open relationship so there’s no point in trying anymore.” Harry told him, his tone flat and Liam knew he was feeling like shit right now. Liam knew his band mate would feel like this for another few hours, that he wouldn’t be happy again till he received a text from Louis telling him he’d got home safe. And even then, when he’d smile at the texts his boyfriend would send, or they’d talk on the phone; Harry’s smile still wouldn’t reach his eyes because without Louis with him then he wasn’t 100% happy.

With a sigh Liam just pulled his friend into his side, letting him bury his head into his shoulder because he needed that comfort; so the 4 of them sat in silence and watched the TV, and when Liam was sure he felt a small drop of water on his shoulder he didn’t say anything, just tightened his grip around Harry’s shoulders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one more chapter and i'm up to date, so i'll post that tomorrow. this is more of a filler chapter, the real stuff happens next :)


	5. Chapter Four, Harry's Surprise Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry deals with management's requests, and Louis gets a drunken phone call

Harry sighed as he took another gulp of the cold beer he was holding, the music was too load and all he could smell was alcohol and sweat mixed together. He hated been here, wanted to just leave; maybe go back to Zayn’s and the pair could cuddle up together on his sofa and watch some romantic comedy they’d already watched a thousands. Or maybe go back to his cold, empty house and hope that Louis was up so they could Skype till the early hours of the morning, only ended the session when one or both of them fell asleep on there keyboards.

But no, he had to sit here on the cold hard bar stool, drinking his beer and waiting for the girl management had asked him to meet here. She was suppose to get here for around 11, where Harry had been requested to make small talk with her for half an hour in case fans were in the club and taking images; but after half an hour he was to be seen leaving the club and getting into a taxi with her. So the paps could get pictures of them and by tomorrow it’d be across the internet, talking about the new girl Harry had been hooking up with.

Harry hated this routine; he’d done it time and time again after he’d stated that under no circumstance would he use a beard, that he would never walk around holding hands and pretending to date some pretty girl who would be getting paid to hide his sexuality. His management had suggested it sometime at the beginning of last year when rumours had flown about him dating Caroline – who’d honestly been just a friend – and they said it might look good if he had a girlfriend for a few months. 

It had been the worst fight Harry had ever had with management; he refused to ever say he was dating someone that wasn’t Louis. It was okay when he was rumoured to be seeing someone, but it was different to actually say he was in a relationship with some complete stranger who was been paid. Management had shouted at him, told him it was best for the band and he should think about others. Harry had been furious about this, told them they could fuck off and if he was such a bother then they should just fire him.

He’d stormed out the meeting – which unluckily for him was caught on camera by a few lurking paps and he was in the headlines for apparently throwing s diva fit – and drove the 151 miles to Doncaster to the comforting arms of Louis who was on break from Uni. He stayed there for a few days without anyone catching on, and when he returned to London management didn’t mention the beard thing again.

Since that day they’d only mentioned it once more - when Harry had grown close with Nick and gay rumours had rose – but he refused once again and they left the subject without pressing him. Instead they figured out that every time they thought Harry needed to be seen with a girl to kill certain rumours about his love life they didn’t like, then they’d just have him pictured leaving some place with some pretty model girl and leave it at that. This way Harry didn’t have to pretend to be dating anyone because he could say the girls where just his friends, and honestly the majority of the time they were.

That was why he was here tonight, after the gig last week where he’d meet up with Louis and the paparazzi had managed to get some shot of him which contained Louis; PR decided it was time for him to be seen leaving another popular club with another stick thin, probably blonde, model. Because honestly, anyone could see the boy in the background that they’d never seen before and automatically think he was Harry’s secret boyfriend.

He rolled his eyes and took another gulp of beer, looking up at the clock to see he had 5 more minutes till he’d be joined with company. He didn’t know who management had sent tonight, they’d just text him at 9 to tell him the club address and that some model aged around 20 had been paid to meet him there at 11 so he needed to be sat at the bar then.

He felt a pat on his shoulder and turned to see a blonde girl stood there, she wore a short black dress that wasn’t fit tight against her body, but more floaty and loose; she’d caked on the makeup and fake tan and he could tell she’d probably spent hours on her hair as well. She was more curvy and rounded than others he’d been set up with, which kind of pleased him because he knew there were some fans out there who felt insecure about there bodies; and honestly it wouldn’t do much help to those insecurities when he was always been seen with stick thin girls. They deserved to know that there weight didn’t make them who they were and that everyone was beautiful. Harry always said that he’d never dream of refusing to date someone just because they weren’t extremely skinny, sure there wasn’t much chance of Harry ever dating a fan, but that was only because the majority of them were girls whereas he was a fan of males; and currently in a happy relationship.

“Hey, I’m Becca.” She told him, sticking her hand out for a handshake, which Harry wasn’t about to be rude and pass up. “My agent said your management had told you to meet me here so we could be seen leaving the club.” She added on, smiling a big toothy smile. At least now he knew this was the model he’d been set up with and not some random fan wanting to try catch his eye.

The pair sat and talked for half an hour, Harry learnt that Becca wasn’t actually a catwalk model, but more a fashion model that worked for fashion companies and would be pictured wearing there clothes for advertisements. She told him she’d agreed to meet him because she was offered a nice sum of money which she wanted to use to help get her younger sister into University, plus she was a fan of the band happy to help because it meant she could meet him in person.

She was nicer than the others he’d been set up with, ones that he hadn’t know previously. He found that conversation flow was easy and he didn’t have to try to hard to keep it going. Soon it was half 11 and Harry was paying the bar attender what he owed him for the drinks before walking out with Becca.

They didn’t hold hands, and walked with a space between them, because Harry had only agreed to this scheme as long as no physical contact or PDA was used. The paparazzi were obviously waiting, and the camera flashes started as soon as he stepped out the club; all making sure they got a picture of Harry and his latest ‘shag’. Harry just kept his eyes on the ground like every time he’d been in this situation, headed down the street where he’d been told a car would be waiting.

He could just about hear the sound of heels on pavement above the noise of the paps, allowing him the knowledge that Becca was following behind. He wasn’t going to look back, because if he did and she happened to be surrounded by paparazzi he’d been seen as the bad guy if he didn’t help; but he just couldn’t do anything that would count as PDA, he just wouldn’t.

He found the car where it was suppose to be waiting, and relief washed over him. He was ready to get in, drop Becca off wherever she needed to be and then head back home. He reached out for the door handle when he felt a hand on his arm, making him pull back and turn around to find Becca extremely close to him.

“I’m sorry, but I’m been paid.” She whispered, and the next thing Harry knew and felt was lips on his own. Sticky ones that was the cause of too much lipstick, unfamiliar and awful because they weren’t Louis’, they didn’t belong to his boyfriend, didn’t have the plumpness or taste of home that Louis’ lips brought. He was quick to pull away, but even then they’d got what they wanted, they’d got images of Harry kissing some female which was all management had ever wanted.

-

It is half 2 when Louis is woken up to the sound of his phone ringing, he jerked up into a sitting position immediately upon hearing the chorus of Live While We’re Young, but his brain took several seconds to register what was going on because of his sleepy state. But when it does he quickly reaches to grab his phone that iss sat on his bedside table, cursing himself for not turning it on silent and pressing accept without looking at the caller ID so he doesn’t risk waking up El in the room next door.

“Hello?” he mumbled down the phone, slumping back down into his pillow.

“I’m really really sorry Lou, I’m so so sorry.” Came the voice on the other end, the voice Louis could recognised no matter what.

“Haz babe, what going on?” he asked, slightly more alert right now.

“I’m sorry.” Came the voice again, and it was clear now to Louis that his boyfriend was extremely drunk.

“Baby please tell me what’s up, you’re making me worried.” He asked again, sitting up fully now.

“She kissed me, she kissed me because management paid her to.” He told him, and Louis felt the blood drain from his face. He knew he shouldn’t freak out, that it wasn’t Harry’s fault that someone had kissed him. He knew Harry would beat himself up over something like this, knew because he’d seen his boyfriend when he’d got out of meetings with management when they tried to get him to get a beard or have a pseudo relationship for the media. But he also couldn’t ignore the knot in his stomach, the knot that would only get bigger in the morning when he’d buy a magazine or turn on his laptop and see the pictures of Harry with his lips on someone else’s.

“I’m so so sorry, I hate it. She felt awful, all slimy from the lipstick; unlike you who feels like comfort and home.” Harry babbled into the phone, bringing Louis back into reality. He could tell from Harry’s voice he was crying, and suddenly Louis wanted to cry too. He hated that he couldn’t be there for Harry; that he couldn’t hold him in his arms and just keep him there until he was feeling better.

Harry was only 18 after all, people forgot that all the time. Forgot he was still a teenager, that all he wanted to do was to sing to people and hope they enjoyed his voice. That he shouldn’t have to deal with the pressure he did have, that he shouldn’t be put through having to hold onto a secret that management had told him if he let slip he could potentially ruin it for himself and the rest of the band. Shouldn’t be told you need to be seen leaving bars and clubs with new women to keep up your image as a ladies man, because it’s much more acceptable to be sleeping with every lady in London that it is to be in a relationship with another man.

Louis had never wanted to be in London more than he did now; he always wanted to be with Harry. But it was worst when Louis knew he was hurting and he couldn’t be there to try make it stop.

“Harry sweetheart please calm down, don’t worry I’m not mad because I know it’s not your fault. But please calm down because it’s making me upset that I can’t be there with you.” Louis spoke down the phone, his tone soft and gentle like Harry needed. He heard a few sniffles, before a small ok came through his end.

“Now Harry I want you to listen to me. I want you to promise that you won’t drink anymore okay. I don’t want you to get to drunk and do something stupid okay baby.” Louis told him down the phone, trying to make his voice soothing, like he would if Harry was with him right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i'm up to date now, it matches tumblr. so the next chapter will be up sometime this weekend once i've finished writing it :)


	6. Chapter Five: Part One, The Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and the rest of One Direction have a confrontation with Management

The first thing Harry registered when he woke up the next morning was that his head felt like it was about to split in two at any moment. The next thing he registered was the strong arms wrapped around his middle section and the warm body pressed against his back. He momentarily panicked, unable to remember anything about last night except some fuzzy vision of been kissed by a random girl; he was worried about what’d happened next, he hadn’t got so drunk and slept with someone had he? He began panicking again at this though, he couldn’t have cheated, he loved Louis to much too ever sleep with anybody else. But when he looked down he recognised that all familiar ZAP tattoo and was overcome with relief, realising he was just in the arms of his best friend and not some random stranger. 

Zayn stirred then, letting out a low moan as he tried to snuggle further into the bed, his grip around Harry tightening and keeping him trapped there securely. Harry couldn’t help the small the smile that appeared on his face due to the comfort of his friend as he closed his eyes, wanting to try get some more sleep. But not even a minute later and he was dashing to the bathroom joined to Zayn’s room, pulling up the toilet seat and letting himself empty his stomach; the sick itself wasn’t much, just a liquid which told Harry he’d thrown up due to drinking far too much alcohol, which he’d already predicted since he had no recognition of the nights events along with a banging headache.

He kept retching for another minute before he felt he’d got it all up and flushed the toilet, sending it away where he didn’t need to think about it. He could hear movement from the bedroom now, showing that Zayn had woken up fully, likely due to the sound of Harry. He let out a groan as he stood up on his slightly shaking legs, splashing some cold water on his face for good measure. 

Zayn was sat up at the end of the bed when Harry walked out, sending him a sympathetic smile in his direction. Harry wanted to groan but the thought of making noise made his head hurt more, so he walked over to the bed to sit down beside his friend; snuggling into his side when he slung a arm over his shoulder. 

“How you feeling mate?” Zayn asked softly, probably aware of the killer headache Harry was currently experiencing. 

“Like shit, I can’t even remember how I got here to be honest.” Harry told him, not raising his voice to high and it barely even reached Zayn’s ears; it’s just lucky he’s somehow got amazing hearing abilities despite the loud fans. 

“It wasn’t pretty, I had to practically drag you home at 3 in the morning because you’d drank that much; if you hadn’t looked so heartbroken and innocent I’d have been really pissed off with you.” He told him, bringing his hand up to quickly run his fingers through the unruly curls; although he didn’t let them linger long because he knew it was only really Louis that Harry liked petting his hair. 

“What even happened for me to end up been that drunk?” Harry asked, closing his eyes as his head came to rest on top of Zayn’s shoulder. He honestly couldn’t remember anything past the point of getting a text from management about damage control and needed to meet a girl at some bar; then there was fuzzy stuff like lips on his own that didn’t belong to Louis. 

“I’m not sure exactly, but Louis called me just after half two last night; sounded really worried, told me you’d rang him and you were really drunk on the phone and he was worried something might happen to you so he’d phone me to make sure you were safe.. Apparently you’d gone out with some girl like management told you too and she’d kissed you in front of the paps. You’d got upset and freaked out I think, about loosing Louis, because he said you’d kept saying you were sorry and when I came for you, you were mumbling words. They weren’t full sentences but you kept saying Louis and sorry and love; you cried at one point as well. It was all abit messy and it took me a while to finally get you to calm down and come to bed.” Zayn told him softly, rubbing his hand over Harry’s bicep as a form of comfort. 

Harry groaned then, unhappy with what he’d done and slightly embarrassed. He’d woken people up and caused them to see to him at the early hours of the morning because he’d got upset and drank too much. 

“You know I don’t care you woke me up right? Management were really out of order doing that to you last night, you’ve already told them time and time again you refuse to do something like this. They had absolutely no right to do that to you, their dickheads for making you and Louis hide in the first place and now they hire some model just to kiss you and without you knowing. That makes them the lowest of the low, we won’t stand for this Harry; all 3 of us have your back on this Harry, it’s not acceptable. They’ve been treating you like shit and making you feel down for ages now, your only 18 for god sake, you shouldn’t have to deal with all this. Having some random girl kiss you was the last straw, now the fight starts Harry.” Zayn tells him, sternly but softly. Not wanting to upset Harry anymore, or shout and worsening his headache; but he also had to make sure he got his point across, that this was no joke. 

\- 

Zayn stuck to this promise, having invited the rest of the boys over as soon as he and Harry finished breakfast, giving them a chance to discuss their ideas and the next stage of action. They both had been furious, Niall had already been on his way over to Harry’s place when Zayn rang after having seen the pictures when he’d woke up and made the diversion over to Zayn’s place. Liam hadn’t seen the pictures when Zayn phoned him, but after an explanation he was on his way over straight away, and Harry guessed he’d probably also be looking up the photos.

Zayn was reluctant at first, but gave Harry back his phone after deleting the twitter app and somehow managing to block the most common gossip site on his phone to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid like look at hate, or the pictures from last night and become even more depressed.

He had a few texts from some people, one from Grimmy that had nothing to do with anything of the events last night but was just linked to the conversation they’d been in the middle of. He had another from his mum, it had came this morning and she’s told him that if he needed anything or wanted to talk then she was available for him and she was here for him so it was clear she’d seen the pictures as well. And then there was a text from Louis waiting, as well as a missed call which had been about 5 minutes before the text. He opened it up ready to read it. 

‘Hey sweetheart just wanted to make sure you were okay and that Zayn had got you home in one piece. Please text me back so I can put my mind at ease, because I’m not sure I’ll be able to concentrate without hearing from you. And please make sure you don’t do anything silly, and don’t get all hung up about the photos, I know it wasn’t your fault and it was your managements team. I’ve got an important class this morning, but I’m going to try get down to see you soon, because I honestly miss you like crazy babes. Love you lots and always remember that. Xxxxx’

Harry wanted to cry at his message, as well as throw his phone across the room and have it smash against the wall. He loved Louis so much and it hurt how understanding he was been; a part of Harry wanted him to be mad, wanted him to get angry that he’d let himself be kissed because Harry was feeling angry at himself. But the other part of him was so relieved that Louis was so understanding, that he knew she’d kissed Harry and it was all managements doing. That he didn’t hate Harry for anything just missed him and wanted to be with him. After battling with himself internally for about 5 minutes he shot Louis a reply, letting him know everything was fine, that Zayn had got him home safe and he was currently still at his place and the other lads were on there way over. 

Zayn had them all seated together in the living room when Niall and Liam turn up, Liam 5 minutes after Niall, to discuss what happens next. Harry didin’t say much with his head still pounding and instead mainly sits in silence, his head on Zayn’s knee and listening to what the others think.

Niall was just furious, throwing out more threats than possible options; claiming he wanted to punch the smirks off everyone at Modest Management for thinking they can get away with the way they treated Harry. Liam was the opposite, thinking up loads of new scenarios and options; looking at the business sides of thinks and what contracts they’ve signed and if they’ve broke any on either side. Attempting to look at it from management’s point of view – which pissed off the other 3- and why they did what they did.

Zayn was a mixture of both, really wanting to do some damage to the colleagues over at Modest as well; but also wanting to be rational and not do anything stupid. He mainly just sat there; agree with most of Niall’s threats and Liam’s plans while making sure Harry was feeling okay. Eventually though, after a couple of hours of discussion they decided to have a meeting with management to try sort all the bullshit out. Of course they’d been declined when they phoned the main office, because they were busy and couldn’t fit them in. But neither Zayn nor Niall were having this, so they ended up phoning for a car – since Harry was the only one who could drive and his car was still parked up at the managements office where he’d left it last because he was normally using company cars to travel around in – and driving down the office where the plan was to sit and wait to see someone. 

It didn’t take long for them to be seen, the man in charge not wanting 4 pop stars sat in his lobby, especially when one looked about to puke because of the alcohol they’d consumed the previous night. They were soon in a lift and heading up to the floor there team was based on, ready to confront them although none of them were sure of the outcome. 

Zayn kept close to Harry as they walked down the bleak, boring hallways. The office was very plain, only the bottom floor held decorations which were basically plaques of their clients success while they’d been part of the company, One Direction had their own down there somewhere. 

They were seated in a room and had to wait another 15 minutes before been joined by Gary Davidson who was the boss of everything, along with Julie Hamilton his assistant and Sally Donnelly their PR. They had vacate expressions on their faces which said they wanted to be anywhere but here right now. 

“You wanted to see us?” Gary asked once he’d taken his seat in front of the boys, on the opposite side of the table. 

“Yeah, that was completely uncalled for what you did to Harry last night.” Zayn all but shouted across the table, but the 3 adults didn’t even flinch.

“We had to do some damage control.” Gary replied with a shrug. 

“Damage control? For what? Because he was seen leaving a pub and about 50 yards behind was his secret boyfriend no one knows at all, who was also attached to a girls arm; oh yes everyone’s going to immediately realise that the two are dating and Harry’s sexual preferences don’t come in form of boobs and a vagina.” Niall shouted now, looking extremely angry and almost red in the face. 

“He needs to learn he can’t go parading around with that boy, he already went out with him publically to the Olympics and had him sat behind him during the VMAs, what if fans suddenly realise it’s the same person and want answers, we can’t risk it.” Gary told them, his tone more stern than before and he leaned over the desk slightly. 

“But I told you that I wouldn’t ever kiss anyone, I was perfectly fine going to bars and clubs just be seen leaving with some model girlfriend; I was perfectly fine seeing my name plastered across every gossip site and magazine telling the world I fucked yet another woman. That’s fine because it’s not true, it’s rumours; fans will never be able to find out if we actually had sex so I’m not lying to them, they make up rumours and I don’t correct them but I’m not officially lying to them, and I’m not cheating on Louis either.

You knew all this, you knew I would never take a stupid fucking beard, or use PDA with someone. You knew it and so instead you hired the model to kiss me without my acknowledgement. I found conversation with her flowed easy, and for once I thought you’d actually chosen someone nice for me to be pictured with, but it was all just a game, you hired someone who’d be nice to me and treat me like she didn’t want to be there so I wouldn’t have suspected anything when she kissed me.” Harry was angry now, he’d kept it all in all day and he couldn’t anymore. It wasn’t right to be treated the way they treated him and he was finally realising it.

“Honestly Harry stop been so dramatic over it, it was just one kiss. I’m sure your little boyfriend doesn’t care about it, god isn’t it time you let him go anyway, he’s only holding you back.” Gary muttered under his breathe, but Harry heard every word of it, as did the rest of the boys. The force in which he jumped from his chair was big, the chair he’d been sitting in went flying back and hit the wall with a bang; but Harry didn’t glance back to see if it’d done any damage, he just kept walking. 

The other boys followed him, shouting his name to try get his attention; for him to calm down and not do anything stupid. But he ignored them all, only quickening his pace to get away from them; and by the time they’d left the building Harry was in his car and pulling out the car park, driving away, unknown to the boys where he was going. 

\- 

“Does Harry know you’re heading up to see him?” El asked Louis, she was sat on his bed while he continued packing; he’d told her his plans as soon as today’s lesson’s had finished, he had a few days of no lessons now, since his Fridays were always free on his schedule and it was then the weekend. 

After last night he was even more desperate to see Harry, so he was heading there for the weekend and had also persuaded El to collect class notes for him if he didn’t make it back on Monday. 

“No, plan on surprising him to be honest, I told him I’d try get to see him soon but I don’t think he’d have expected this soon.” Louis told her, throwing some skinny jeans in his duffle bag while doing a small dance to Live While We’re Young which was playing through his iPod dock. The door bell rang before El had chance to reply and when Louis shot her a smile she got up with a moan to answer it. 

“This better not be a neighbour complaining about your music again.” El called over her shoulder, and Louis replied to her with a 

“It was your music last time.” Which she couldn’t help but laugh at, as she unhooked the chain and let the door swing open; a small gasp leaving her mouth when she saw who was stood there.

“He’s in his bedroom.” Was all she said before he was in the apartment and she was shutting the door, pointing to the door which lead to Louis’ room which he replied with a kind smile before heading that way. 

“Who was at the door El?” Louis asked when he saw a shadow appear at his door. Turning round to his friend, but letting out a gasp instead at the soaking wet form. 

“Haz?” he whispered, but didn’t get anything else out before Harry was throwing himself into Louis arms, sobs overtaking his body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heres the new chapter, hope you liked it. I've split it into two because otherwise it'dve been really long, and taking a while longer to update. i'll try get the next part out as soon as possible, you can check my tumblr (everythingsfine-ishiplarry) for updates on when i'll be updating :) and thanks for all the kudos on the previous chapter :)


	7. Chapter Five: Part Two, Heart to Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis and Harry have a heart to heart about everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there is a smut scene included in this chapter, it's extremly terrible and i'm extremly ashamed of it. but it's my first time writing anything like it, and probably my last, so i'm really sorry for such a disapointment. but if you don't want to read smut, then you can comment and i'll give you a brief summary of the chapter, or the smut scene is right at the end of the chapter, and it starts with 'Before Louis could think about Harry’s speech anymore, Harry’s lips came crashing onto Louis’ own' so you can read the chapter up until their, cause then it's basically just smut until the end.

Louis had managed to manoeuvre both him and Harry over to his bed, where he’d laid them both down and allowed Harry to just cry into his shoulder. Harry didn’t have break downs or cry much so when he did they could last a long time. Louis had only ever experienced two episodes where Harry was like this, one time when he’d performed on Red Or Black and felt like he’d screwed up the bands performance and when he’d returned to his flat – where Louis had been waiting – he’d read through twitter hate, before climbing into bed with Louis and just crying himself to sleep. The other time was when management had tried to get Harry to agree to use a beard; he’d shown up at Louis’ mum’s front door and clung to Louis who’d took him upstairs to his childhood bedroom and let him cry, before ordering his mum to fix them up her homemade lasagne which he knew Harry loved.

When Harry cried he liked the comfort of someone else, he wasn’t like most lads who would rather stay private for their cry sessions by locking themselves in their own bedroom and crying in silent. No Harry liked it when someone was there, to whisper soft words into his ear and hold him close. So Louis did exactly that, held him as close to his own body as physically possible and whispered soothing sounds to him in the privacy of his bedroom. Louis had shut his door when Harry had flung himself into Louis’ arms, and he’d heard the front door close about 5 minutes later to show Eleanor had decided to give the couple some privacy; so Louis just left Harry cry, let his tears fall freely without trying to stop them, because if Harry had driven the 200 miles from London to Manchester then Louis knew that right now all he needed was a good cry. 

Harry cried for about an hour, just cried. He didn’t say anything through his tears, didn’t tell Louis why he was crying or what had made him visit him when they were about to start big promotion of the album. He just cried and Louis just held him, until he was literally all dried up, until he felt like he couldn’t physically cry anymore because he eyes just wouldn’t let him. So the tears slowed down and the sniffles and shortness of breathe began; Louis just rubbed his small, smooth hands across Harry’s back in comfort, letting the younger boy know he was there. Eventually the pair were just laid in silence, Harry laid tightly against Louis’ side and his face buried in his shoulder; they stayed like this for another 15-20 minutes before Louis deemed it suitable to move.

Harry often got hungry or thirsty after a cry session, so Louis knew he should probably offer Harry something. He wasn’t the best cook in the world, Eleanor doing all the cooking in this flat and when he was in London Harry did the cooking, but he had plenty of take out menus in the kitchen drawer he could order from. He slowly began to pull away from Harry slightly, just enough so he was able to sit up and bring Harry with him, who was still silent except for his breathing and occasional breathe hitch.

“You hungry babe? We can order something in and snuggle down to watch a film or something like that.” Louis asked softly, rubbing his hands up and down Harry’s arm which now was filled with Goosebumps; Harry just nodded his head to show Louis his answer and Louis pulled out of the embrace, standing up from the bed before offering his hand to Harry who smiled gratefully and took it. Louis knew that Harry would talk when he wanted to, he wasn’t stupid and knew that Harry would tell him what was wrong instead of bottling it up. But he had to give Harry time and not rush him, he’d learnt that from the Red or Black instance when Harry had refused to speak at first but eventually he did open up and tell Louis the problem.

So Louis’ plan was to make Harry feel better, he wanted to let his boyfriend know he was here for him, and that Louis was perfectly fine with the fact Harry didn’t want to talk yet. He’d order them a Chinese or pizza, and then wrap up with Harry under a blanket and watch some cheesy romantic comedy, and maybe Harry would tell him the problem, or maybe he’d wait for the morning. But Louis didn’t care and would listen when the time came.

“Where you going somewhere?” Harry asked once he was stood up, his palm safely locked in Louis’; his voice was raspy and slightly croaked due to his crying, Louis knew he was indicating to the half packed suitcase.

“I was actually planning to come up to London for a few days, was going to surprise you since I missed you and wanted to see you. But you kind of beat me to the punch babe.” Louis told him, the smile on his face real as he stared up at this boyfriend. He may have a red blotchy face, with bloodshot swollen eyes due to the crying; and his hair and clothes might be slightly wrinkled and out of place but he still looked just as beautiful as always. Louis reached up on his tip-toes to place a light, gentle kiss on Harry’s lips; letting it linger for a moment before pulling away and leading him and Harry off in the direction of the kitchen.

His phone lay on the kitchen work top where he’d left it after grabbing a snack when he got home, and when he pressed the round button to check the time he noticed El had sent him a text letting him know she was spending the night at her friend Jasmine’s house to give him and Harry some space; which he was extremely thankful for.

“Pizza or Chinese babe?” Louis asked as he began searching through the top drawer which was home to their entire take out menu collection.

“Both” Harry replied, jumping up to sit on the counter beside Louis; who immediately pulled out a menu from his favourite pizza and Chinese place; handing the Chinese menu to Harry as he pulled himself up to sit beside him.

“Alright, I’ll phone for the pizza and you can phone for the Chinese. I’m guessing you’ll want your usual of Chicken and Sweetcorn?” Louis asked with a smile as he grabbed his phone once again.

“Extra sweet corn, and I’ll order you your chicken in a black bean sauce?” Harry replied and Louis just nodded.

-

After ordering the food the pair retreated back to the living room to watch a movie, Louis not wanting to watch some rom-com that had Harry in tears again such as Titanic or a Nicholas Sparks movie he’d stuck on This Means War which Stan had told him was good.

They curled up under Louis big blanket he kept at the top of his wardrobe for moments like this and cold winter nights when he needed more warmth than just his duvet and ate the food while the movie played. 

Stan had been right, the movie was good. Despite it been a rom-com it wasn’t that girlie - since the two main guys where spies – and it was really funny in places; they both laughed and Louis felt Harry relax and cheer up some more from his place curled up into Louis’ side.

Once the movie was over Louis turned on some reruns of Mrs Browns Boys since he knew it was one of Harry’s favourites and let his fingers come up to play with Harry’s curls. He was desperate to find out what had caused Harry’s episode earlier, but he also didn’t want to make Harry feel pressured.

“Will you promise me something?” Harry suddenly asked, lifting his head from where it had previously been laid on Louis’ shoulder and bringing him out of his own head.

“Sure sweetheart, anything.” Louis replied, turning so he could look at Harry, their eyes locking together and Louis swore he saw insecurity, worry and sadness mixed into those brilliant green jewels.

“Never leave me.” He almost whispered, diverting his eyes slightly after he’d spoke; Louis felt like he’d been punched, why would Harry say something like that? Surely he knew by now that Louis wasn’t leaving him, that he loved him too much to ever say goodbye forever.

“Haz, of course I’m not going to leave you; why on earth did you think I would?” Louis asked, placing his finger softly under Harry’s chin so he could raise it and look into Harry’s eyes.

“Management said something today, said I should get rid of you because it was effected the band; and I know there lying but I also know how far they’ll be willing to go, and I’m just worried they’ll attempt to speak to you and try persuade you to leave me. But I couldn’t cope if you did, I need you so much and I don’t think I’d be able to function if you left. I need you to promise you won’t let them persuade you, that you won’t leave me no matter what they say about it affecting the band and how it’s best to let me go and live my dream. 

Because I know it’s all lies and so do you, it’s not affecting the way I sing or perform or act around the boys, it’s just them scared they won’t sell as many stupid fucking singles if the public found out a member of the biggest band at moment would rather sleep in a bed with another boy than a girl. So I need you to promise you’ll stay beside me no matter what.” Harry told him, and Louis could see the tears beginning to cloud his eyes once again at the thought of them not been together and management forcing them apart.

Louis immediately pulled Harry in for a bone crushing hug, holding him tightly against his body as he whispered promises to never ever leave him. He felt a tear drop against the skin of his neck before Harry sniffled and buried his face into the material of Louis’ shirt to wipe away the tears.

Louis was shocked about Harry’s speech, he knew it must have been bad due to everything that had happened tonight; and he’d guessed it would have been caused by management since he’d been kissed without his consent yesterday; but he didn’t think management would go to this many lengths to cover up Harry’s sexuality, that they were so desperate to make sure no one found out that they were together that they told Harry they needed to break up for the sake of the band. I mean did they think that even if Harry and Louis were to break up then he’d suddenly become straight, that he’d suddenly see some stick, thin blonde model with big boobs and immediately want to drag her to bed? 

After about 5 minutes of just sat together in the embrace before Louis pulled back, Harry’s eyes were slightly red but weren’t as bad as before so Louis knew he hadn’t cried to hard.

“I really need to pop to the toilet, and clean up these take away boxes; and your mobiles been buzzing a few times. So I’ll go sort my stuff out and you reply to your texts and then we’ll sit down and talk about what happened today, okay baby?” Louis asked, and Harry nodded, grabbing his phone and laying down on the sofa when Louis had stood up.

He had about 5 texts of Liam who Harry could tell seemed pretty frantic and really worried as each of them was just different ways of asking where he was because he was scared and didn’t want him doing anything stupid. There was a text from Niall telling him not to worry about management and to make sure he was feeling better. Zayn’s text told Harry that he guessed he’d gone to see Louis for a while and he should take his time and spend as much time as he needed away from the spotlight because he deserved it, but he had to make sure he stayed safe.

He sent all 3 of them a reply, just to let them know he was with Louis and he was going to stay here for a few days and calm down and just relax, and they don’t need to worry because Louis would take care of him and he wouldn’t do anything stupid.

He also had a text from his mum which told him Liam had phoned and explained that he’d left a meeting with Modest and not told them where he was going and she just wanted to make sure he was safe and not extremely drunk in some bar or lying in a crushed vehicle on the side of the A1.

He text her back, letting her know he was perfectly safe with Louis at his place and he was going to stay for a while but he might try get up to see her as well at some point. He then switched off his phone and placed it inside the drawer of the small counter Louis had beside the sofa which held a lamp. He planned on staying away from the media and everything for at least the weekend, just slipping back into a routine of him and Louis and been normal.

Louis returned a few minutes later, lifting Harry’s head up and taking a seat on the sofa before bringing it down onto his knee and bringing his hands up to play with Harry’s hair. For a moment they stayed like this, in silence with Louis just playing with the curls.

“Will you tell me exactly what happened, please? I want to know exactly what’s happened since I left, because it’s not everyday you show up at my apartment and cry for around an hour and I know it must be pretty serious.” Louis whispered with his fingers still tangled in Harry’s curls, before leaning down and bringing a kiss to Harry’s forehead. Harry let out a sigh before closing his eyes and starting from the beginning.

He told Louis about management telling him that he needed to been seen out with another girl again; that he hadn’t been seen out with anyone in a while which was letting his player boy image slip plus he needed to do some damage control since he’d been spotted leaving a bar with Louis; despite none of the fans or media having mentioned it.

He told Louis about how he’d agreed because he knew that if he didn’t it’d only cause more hassle and honestly he’d done it before and no harm had came from it. He told Louis about how he’d followed management’s requests and gone to this club in London ready to meet some model, he talked about how he had met her and how she seemed nice and genuine compared to the other setups previously, how they’d been able to talk easily without awkward silences.

He then tells him about how she’d kissed him in front of paparazzi and how angry and upset he’d been. How he’d wanted to just punch every single employee at Modest, but he was also upset and worried about Louis’ seeing the pictures and how betrayed he’d feel because he’d kissed someone else. He tells Louis about him decided he needed another drink, and then another and another. He tells him about not really remembering much about the nights events, that he woke up in Zayn’s bed with a killer headache and practically no memories, and the ones that he had were slightly fuzzy.

He talks about how Zayn had told him about his phone call to Louis who’d phoned Zayn to make sure Harry was safe and with company, about how Zayn had told him he’d had to practically drag him home because he was mess of tears and alcohol.

He talks about the other boys, and how angry they’d been at Modest for paying a girl to kiss him when he had always stated that was the one thing he wouldn’t do, the one think he was uncomfortable with. He moved on to talk about the meeting they’d had with the man in charge, how he’d shown no sympathy or regret for his actions and had in fact turned it around on him, claiming it was his fault for been spotted with Louis and he was been too dramatic about the kiss; how they’d then said Harry should just dump Louis anyway because he was just a burden and holding him back even though that wasn’t furthest from the truth.

He tells him about how this was when he flipped out, that he’d been so angry that he’d just stormed out the building before he really did jump across the table to punch them. He talks about getting his car and not really knowing what he was doing and just letting his feet and hands do the driving; how he’d sort of been in his own world until he realised just where he’d ended up; that his feet had brought him to Manchester and Louis’ flat and honestly he knew that was where he wanted to be.

The entire time Louis sat in silence listening to everything Harry had to say, he made sure his fingers kept playing with his curls because he knew that comforted the younger boy; and when Harry had finished the story he leaned down to kiss his lips and wipe away the stray tear that had fallen. He still didn’t say anything even then because Harry didn’t need to hear anything really, and honestly Louis didn’t really have anything to say. 

He was absolutely fuming and disgusted with Harry’s management team; Harry didn’t deserve anything they were currently doing to him. Harry should be happy and excited right now, he was about to launch his 2nd album and the single Little Things was due out soon; he should be getting ready with the boys for promotion and travelling, just like with the first album. He shouldn’t be sat in Louis’ living room after an hour long crying episode and a few estranged tears throughout the rest of the night.

Before Louis could think about Harry’s speech anymore, Harry’s lips came crashing onto Louis’ own. It caught Louis by surprise for a moment, but he soon realised what was happening; Harry was in a vulnerable state right now, worried he was going to be left alone or that management would ruin everything. Harry needed to know Louis was still there, that he wasn’t going anywhere; he needed to know Louis was here for him and Louis would show him that. Louis loved Harry with all his heart, he meant everything to him and he would show him that.

“let’s head to my bedroom babe.” Louis spoke once they broke for air. Harry pouted at this slightly, making Louis giggle.

“I’m perfectly fine right here boo.” He replied, leaning in to kiss Louis once again but he was stopped before he could. Louis giggled, he knew Harry would be perfectly fine doing it right here. But often Harry would be too tired to do anything but sleep afterwards, and honestly Louis didn’t feel like waking up in the morning to a girlie scream since El had walked in on them stark naked.

“I know, but I’ve got a roommate to think about.” Louis told him, raising to his feet and holding his hand out for Harry who took it immediately, raising to his own feet and bringing his lips down on Louis’ who kissed back with just as much enthusiasm. They stood there for a few minutes, just kissing, their tongues doing a dance together in their mouths.

After a few minutes Harry brought his hands down to Louis’ bum, letting his hands rest there to help lift Louis up in his arms. Once Louis had wrapped his legs securely around his waist and Harry had moved his arms to wrap around Louis’ waist he began backing up in the direction of the bedroom, not letting this kiss break once.

When they’d reached the bed they continued kissing for a while longer, before the need of air became too great and they had to pull away. Louis used this as an advantage, beginning to kiss down Harry’s neck and arriving at his collarbones. After dating for almost 3 years the pair knew each other bodies like their own, Louis knew Harry’ collarbones were extremely sensitive and how much he loved when Louis played with them, kissing and bitting at them.

Louis began sucking the skin covering Harry’s right collarbone, ready to leave a beautiful big love bite. Just like predicted, Harry let out a low moan at his actions and Louis is pretty sure he felt a twitch from Harry’s groin which he was practically sat upon. Louis moved to begin working a love bite into Harry’s other collarbone, making him moan even more and his eyes roll back into his head much to Louis’ own pleasure.

“Lou, I-I…” Harry moaned out a few minutes later, Louis was able to feel Harry’s erection now, and he was pretty sure Harry would be able to feel his since all his moans had gone directly to his own penis and he was now hard against his boxers.

“What is it babe, what do you want? Tell me what you want.” Louis spoke softly, his breathe tickling against Harry’s skin since his lips were still working at the series of love bites across Harry’s neck and chest.

“You Lou, I need you.” Harry moaned out, his head rolling back further into the pillow. Louis nodded while he still worked the love bites, he’d know what Harry had wanted before Harry had said. Sure most of the time Harry was top and Louis was bottom but times like these Harry liked to be bottom because he liked to feel loved.

Louis continued working on marking his territory for another minute before he brought his hands up to the hem of Harry’s shirt, pulling it up and over Harry’s head in one quick motion and allowing Harry to do the same with his own before Louis’ lips were attached to Harry’s skin once again, tonight Louis was making this about Harry, as long as Harry was feeling loved and happy then Louis was just as happy and in love as well.

“Lou, please, I need you so much.” Harry stuttered, his body arching up at Louis’ touches.

“Shhhh… baby, patience is a virtue.” Louis whispered as he kissed his way down Harry’s long torso, quickly working the button and zip of Harry’s jeans when he reached them, getting them off Harry in the blink of an eye leaving him in just his boxers. Louis knew his eyes would be dark with lust at the site of Harry’s cock strained against the restriction off his under wear, a small wet patch due to Harry’s pre-come.

No longer able to wait, he pulled down the black boxers and flung them across the room out of sight; Harry’s cock bouncing up and hitting his stomach at the new freedom. Harry brought own hands down to Louis’ jeans which he was still wearing, undoing the buttons and zip while muttering how he wanted to see Louis in all his glory as well.

Once Louis was naked as well, the two began kissing once more. Tongues battling for dominance in a passionate dance for several minutes before pulling away for air. Louis was quick then; small butterfly kisses down Harry’s chest and torso before taking Harry’s erection into his mouth. 

Harry let out a moan of pleasure having not expected that, Louis smirked at this, pulling away from Harry’s cock and the using his tongue to pleasure Harry. Licking up and down his shaft and around his balls, almost working it like a lollypop and it making Harry squirm beneath him.

“OhMiGod Lou.” Harry breathed out, “I don’t think I’m going to hold on much longer.” He added on.

“Don’t worry darling, come for me.” Louis murmured, bringing Harry entire cock back into his mouth, deep throating him immediately. The use of the word darling tipped Harry over the edge though, his body shaking with pleasure as his cum spurted back into Louis’ throat. Louis left his mouth on Harry’s cock until he had officially come down from his high, and then brought it back up to kiss Harry.  
“Lou… please... I need you inside me.” Harry panted when they broke apart once more. Louis only nodded this time, reaching over to his bedside table for lube and a condom. “Just you Lou, nothing else, please.” Harry added on, grabbing his wrist of the hand reaching for the condom and Louis immediately knew what he meant. 

It wasn’t like it would be their first time without a condom, because after 3 years of having the same partner you know you’re not exactly going to catch something, so they’d gone without when they couldn’t find one, couldn’t be bothered finding one or when they decided they’d prefer it without.

Louis kissed Harry as he slicked up 3 fingers, making sure they were nicely coated with lube so he didn’t hurt Harry even in the slightest. Once he was sure they were fine, he carefully sat Harry up, managing to get him on his knee without breaking the contact.

Harry’s breathe hitched as Louis rubbed slowly against his opening before pushing one finger inside; Harry groaned at this, moving his lips to Louis’ neck as he too began marking his territory.

Louis slowly opened Harry up, one finger was followed by two, which was then followed by three while Harry just kept moaning in pleasure. 

“I’m ready Lou, please.” Harry finally muttered against the skin of Louis’ neck when he felt he could no longer take it, that he needed Louis inside him right now. Louis immediately pulled out his fingers, making Harry groan at the loss of contact, as he grabbed the bottle of lube once more.

Once he had his dick all slicked up, he grabbed a hold of Harry’s hips to position them both up correctly before slowly inserting himself. Harry moaned with pleasure as he tipped his head back and clung onto Louis’ shoulders.

“You alright there babe.” Louis asked, and when Harry’s only reply was a simple nod of the head he thrust in deeper.

Louis took it slow, wanting to make sure Harry got as much pleasure as he deserved; made sure Harry felt loved and wanted and needed. They kept up a steady pace, Louis thrusting in and out but steadily, not too fast or too slow, to the sounds of Harry’s moans. The pair reached their high’s together, Harry spurting out onto Louis’ stomach and hand which had also been gently tugging at it, while Louis let out his own release still inside Harry.

Once they’d come down from their high, cleaned off the cum so their bodies weren’t sticky they curled up together under Louis’ duvet; Harry’s head resting in Louis’ chest as he wrapped one of his arms around his shoulders letting his hand play with his hair, his other hand linked with Harry’s as he played with his fingers.

“I love you so much Haz, don’t ever forget that ok.” Louis whispered into the dark room.

“I love you to Lou, it’s me and you.” Harry replied back, and it wasn’t much longer after that Louis heard the faint snores coming from Harry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading, plus a big thank you to everyone that left kudos and comments on the last chapter it really meant alot because I love getting feedback. Plus i've now made a twitter account to keep people updated with my fics so you can follow me over their i'm @xlillymaee. plus I also take prompts, if you have any oneshot ideas (i do Larry and Ziam) you can post them in a comment or tell me them via twitter or tumblr and i'll more than likely attempt it :)


	8. Chapter Six, Cute Day Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a fluffy day together for Harry and Louis.

When Louis woke up the next morning it was to the smell of bacon, and a cold space beside him. Making the obvious guess that Harry had woken up a little earlier and decided to make him breakfast Louis got up himself. Once he’d pulled on a pair of underwear and one of Harry’s t-shirt – that fell to his knees considering Harry’s extremely long torso – he followed the smell of bacon into the kitchen. He found Harry there, stood over the oven and talking to Eleanor – who was sat at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal and dressed in her work uniform – about the song the radio, was currently playing, by the way of conversation it seemed that Harry wasn’t a fan of it whereas El was.

Louis entered the kitchen without a sound, heading over to Harry and wrapping his arms around the boy’s waist bringing him in for a tight embrace, which Harry immediately relaxed into; Louis resting his cheek against the warmth of Harry's back.

“Morning beautiful.” Louis murmured, pressing a kiss into Harry’s back with a smile. Harry immediately placed the spatula he’d been using to flip the bacon down, turning around in Louis’ arms to press a kiss on his lips. It didn’t take long for it to become heated between the two, Harry swiping his tongue across Louis’ lip for much needed entrance; they stayed like this for a while until a small cough sounded through the kitchen to remind them they weren’t alone. They pulled back to see a found smile on El’s face, both of them blushing as Harry returned to the bacon and Louis hopped up to sit on the counter top beside him.

“Please wait until I’ve left before turning this into a porno movie, I really don’t fancy throwing my breakfast back up.” El told them, a teasing tone to her voice, her mouth quirking into a smirk when Harry blushed even more.

“Well hurry up and leave then, because I am thinking up several porno scenarios in my head right now that I really want to do with Harry and I’m not a very patient guy.” Louis told her, reaching forward and giving Harry’s bum a quick squeeze, making him giggle but his blush was still extremely prominent. 

“Alright, alright I’m going. Honestly, you’d think you guys were some sort of sex addicts the way you go at it several times a day.” El stated, standing up from the table and placing her bowl in the almost empty sink – save for the few pots Louis and Harry had used the previous night. Louis just stuck his tongue out at her and muttered a whatever.

“Well my shift finishes at 5, but I might head for a coffee with Linda afterwards since she’s apparently got some gossip for me; so if I do I’ll probably buy pizza on the way home so you’ll have to cook for yourself.” Eleanor told them, quickly making sure she had everything in her bag at the same time.

“Okay, have fun at work, and if you get any cheap Hollister clothing for men bring it home.” Louis replied, before stealing a strip of bacon from the plate Harry had just placed beside him.

“Yeah yeah, and make sure I don’t come home to you naked on the couch either. I don’t fancy having nightmares for the rest of the year.” Eleanor told him with a smirk, pulling her bag onto her shoulder to show she was ready to leave.

“You know you just secretly want all this sweetie.” Louis indicated to his body while talking with a mouth full of bacon. She simply rolled her eyes at this as she exited the kitchen, calling out a goodbye over her shoulder in which Louis replied with a drive safely after a beat.

“And where finally alone.” Louis spoke up after making sure he’d eaten all the bacon, jumping down from the counter and over to Harry where he began working on his neck once more, he knew leaving love bites in such a visible place was risky - they’d both been told off in the past about it when Louis got too excited or needy and left too many marks on Harry’s skin and fans questioned why he had lovebites when there was't anyone on the scene lady wise – but right now he honestly didn’t care at all, he was going to show that he was the one dating Harry Styles, not anybody else just him.

-

A hand job, a blow job and some bacon for breakfast and the young couple were snuggled on the sofa; neither of them had any clothes on, there tops and underwear having been discarded somewhere in the apartment earlier on, and were simply wrapped up inside Louis duvet as well as been wrapped up in each others limbs.

Louis been the smaller one was curled up on Harry’s lap as they sat and watched some friends re-runs on comedy central, laughing at the funny antics while Harry played with Louis’ hair, and Louis played with the fingers of Harry’s other hand which was locked with his own underneath the duvet cocoon they’d created.

15 minutes into the episode was when Harry decided to break the silence they’d created.

“Can we go to the bungalow? I’ve got a spare key that I keep with me and I know it’s usually the place I spend some time with the boys. But it’s in a secret location where no fans or paparazzi or anyone know about, so we could go there and just be ourselves, not worry about cameras popping up if we went into the garden or something. I just feel like escaping for a while and it feels like the perfect place for that.” Harry asks, his fingers still combing through Louis’ feathery hair. 

“Yeah sure babe, that actually sounds really nice.” Louis says after a minute. He thinks of how nice it’ll be for the two of them to just escape the world, and Harry’s stepdads bungalow really is the perfect place. It’s in the countryside which means it secluded enough that no one apart from someone who knew the address will find them. They’ll be able to relax and spend time together, but if they stayed here for the weekend then that would mean exactly that, either staying in the entire time or going out but keeping a safe amount of distance between them on the off chance Harry spotted a fan or some paparazzi.

-

Half an hour later and they were both packed and ready to go, despite Harry not bringing anything with him Louis did have a significant amount of his clothes in his wardrobe as he tended to keep his clothes so he could wear them and feel close to Harry when they couldn’t see each other for weeks on end and he simply missed him.

They had enough clothes packed into two of Louis’ small suitcases for several days, neither of them knowing when they’d be returning and how long they’d need clean clothes for. Harry told Louis that the bungalow would be fully stocked since Robin always made sure it was in case the boys ever wanted to come down, so they simply packed a few chocolate bars and packets of crisps for the trip down and they were ready to go.

Louis left a note stuck to the fridge just explain to El that he was heading out for a few days with Harry, just so she wouldn’t get worried. He also made sure he wrote down the landline number of the bungalow in case of any emergency before placing his own mobile in the draw alongside Harry’s.

They decided to take Louis’ car, because fans or paparazzi are more likely to spot Harry’s car and follow them; and although that was taking it to extremes they didn’t want to risk it. So they packed their suitcases into Louis’ own Range Rover – which had been a gift from Harry – and headed onto the road, Harry programming the address into the SatNav to help Louis with directions.

It was a good 45 minute drive from the Uni to Bungalow, but the boys enjoyed the car journey anyway. Messing around with the radio stations and singing loudly at the songs they liked, chatting about everything and nothing and making jokes about the things they saw on the journey. 

Louis loved this, seeing Harry so happy and been so happy himself; Louis knew that he was usually his happiest when with Harry – the only exception been when he was at home with his mum and sisters – and he relished in times like this, because he knew there wasn’t many of them. Especially now, he wasn’t stupid and he’d actually been predicting an outburst from Harry’s management team anyway; there summer had been almost too nice and Louis didn’t think they’d keep letting it be that way. 

After been allowed on two holidays together just the two of them and Louis allowed to accompany Harry to The Olympics and The VMAs; it was like they were been too nice. Harry had been hopeful, he hadn’t expressed this to Louis himself but he knew Harry was hoping this was a sign they’d be finally able to go public. But Louis had felt something uneasy, had a vibe that wasn’t very good; like this was all calm before the storm. And he’d been right, it had been calm before the storm. They’d let Harry and him spend the majority of the summer together and were now trying to rip them apart, it was almost like they’d handed them the summer as if to say ‘you have this time, but when it’s over it’s over and you’ll have to say goodbye’ and although Louis knew that him and Harry weren’t saying a real goodbye anytime soon it still didn’t make him feel much better about the way management treated them and especially Harry.

By the time they reached the bungalow Harry was a ball of excitement, racing out the car and into the building without stopping for his suitcase which made Louis chuckle as he grabbed both bags and locked the car and garage up. There really wasn’t a sign of anyone around and Louis smiled at himself before entering the bungalow himself. 

Harry’s shoes and jacket had been left by the door which was where Louis left his own along with the bags. Louis had only been to the bungalow once before, as Harry tended to keep it reserved for him and the other 3 boys since it was where Harry had brought them between boot camp and judges houses and their bonding and friendships had been created.

When Louis had visited last time it had been for a BBQ Harry had held the previous summer, him and the boys had come back to film some scenes for their ITV2 documentary and when it was done they decided to stay a few more days without the camera crew. Harry had decided to hold a BBQ and invited down his family as well as the other families, he’d made sure Louis came down for it and Liam’s girlfriend Danielle had been there as well.

Louis followed the sound of Harry, who he could tell was in the room he knew to be the kitchen; he could hear Harry whistling and when he entered the room he found his younger boyfriend rummaging through cupboards; obviously looking for some sort of food or drink.

“Maybe I underestimated how often mum and Robin stock up these cupboards, doesn’t look like there’s any food or drink here, we might have to pop to the small village down the road.” Harry called out; clearly not realising Louis had followed him into the kitchen. Louis didn’t reply though, just stood in the doorway, propped against the door and admiring just how nice Harry’s arse looked in the jeans he was wearing; the jeans that were Louis’ so were slightly small for him meaning they fit tightly over his lower half much to Louis’ pleasure.

Harry turned back round after searching all the cupboards, and jumped at the sight of Louis since he wasn’t expecting him there.

“Whoa Lou, give me a heart attack why don’t you, I thought you’d headed into the living room.” Harry exclaimed, hand over his heart been slightly dramatic which made Louis smirk. He left his spot in the doorway and walked quickly over to Harry, wrapping his arms around his neck and Harry’s found their way around Louis’ waist.

“Forget about the food babe, we are here on our own with no one to disturb us.” Louis whispered against Harry’s lips before bring them down into a kiss, Louis’ tongue quick to swipe over Harry’s bottom lip turning it into a heated kiss, Harry let out a groan at this as he slowly started backing them out the kitchen, bumping into several things in the process making Louis giggle into Harry’s mouth, but he still didn’t break the kiss.

-

“So what exactly does this place have to offer for entertainment?” Louis asked, it was half an hour later and both boys were sat in the kitchen eating sandwiches Harry had managed to make with the few items of food the bungalow had to offer.

“Plenty, like my step-dad had it rigged out before but when me and the boys got our first pay check we kind of put abit of money into making this place abit better since it was like our special place. So we’ve got the big TV with plenty of movies as well as the PSP and Wii, then we’ve got the pool outside which we had heaters fitted into and we persuaded Robin to let us have the shed and ended up turning it into a games room. So whatever you want to do we can do.” Harry replied with a smile and Louis began swirling the options around his brain.

“I think I like the idea of the pool followed by games room.” Louis finally said, a smirk playing on his lips at the mention of the pool.

“That’s fine, I’ll switch the heaters on so the pool will be nice and warm when we get into it; wouldn’t want you freezing your balls off now would we.” Harry told him with his own smirk and a twinkle in his eyes.

5 minutes later and they were stood on the edge of the pool contemplating weather it would be hot enough, or really Harry was worrying about it been too cold and him catching pneumonia or something similar.

“Honestly Haz, you put the heaters on ages ago, it’ll be fine now stop been a baby and join me in the pool before I push you in.” Louis told him, a fond tone to his voice as he pulled off the t-shirt and underwear he’d been wearing leaving him stark naked which made Harry lick his lips before also pulling off his own top and pants. 

“Ready?” Louis asked his eyebrows raising slightly, Harry bite his lip once again and looked at the pool.

“You sure it won’t be too cold?” Harry asked once more, Louis rolled his eyes before grabbing Harry’s waist and pushing him into the pool of water as Louis jumped straight in behind him. Harry resurfacing in a spluttering mess due to the amount of water he’d accidently swallowed; Louis couldn’t help but laugh at this.

“Right that’s it.” Harry exclaimed once he couldn’t finally speak once again, turning on Louis who began swimming to the other end of the pool as Harry chased after him. Harry was bigger and faster since when he'd joined the band a fitter, healthier lifestyle had become slightly more needed, so therefore he reached Louis before he could escape, pushing his shoulders down and dunking him in the water.

When Louis resurfaced they both began a series of hysterical laughs before messing around splashing and dunking one another. This lasted for a good few minutes, until Harry dunked Louis who grabbed onto his waist and dragged him underneath the water with him before crashing their lips together. They kept the kiss going for as long as possible but with their current situation the need for oxygen came much quicker than usual and they had to resurface.

“Hmm... that was probably the hottest kiss I’ve ever had.” Harry spoke in a seductive voice once he’d caught his breathe back; pulling Louis in closer who wrapped his arms around his neck and legs around his waist.

“Well there’s plenty more where that came from.” Louis told him, before kissing Harry once again, the tongues now a natural habit for them; but they were so caught up in the kiss that they didn’t here the sounds around them until a female voice let out a yelp making them pull back to see none other than Harry’s mum stood in the doorway, followed by Harry’s stepdad Robin who’d obviously came to see why his wife had yelped.

“Mum what the hell are you doing here.” Harry asked, slightly annoyed before suddenly remembering that both him and Louis were currently naked; his cheeks burned red with embarrassment as both him and Louis tried to cover themselves up best they could. Harry knew that his mum would put their nakedness, their kiss and their embrace together and think she’d just walked in on the pair of them doing it; even though they hadn’t got round to that yet.

“We just stopped in to restock the cupboards in case you wanted to come down, I’m sorry, I’ll be going.” She stammered, her eyes darting about to avoid looking at the pool and the boys before turning back round swiftly and following Robin back into the bungalow.

Harry let out a low groan and brought his hands up to cover his face while Louis let out a giggle from beside you.

“That was so embarrassing, imagine if it’d been your mum that had walked in on us completely naked in the pool while sharing a heated kiss; you’d be mortified.” Harry mumbled from behind his hands which only caused Louis to laugh some more.

“Come on babe, let’s get dressed and go inside; I bet your mum’s going crazy.” Louis told him, before taking his hand and dragging him out the pool.

Once they were dried off and dressed they entered the bungalow once again, Anne and Robin were both in the middle of conversation in the kitchen but immediately stopped when the two boys walked in; Harry’s cheeks were dusted with a red glow and he pulled his bottom lip in between his teeth for a moment before speaking out.

“It wasn’t what you think, what you saw.” Harry told them before going back to chew on his bottom lip.

“Don’t worry about it sweetie, I’m not stupid I know that young teens in love have sex all the time, it’s no big deal.” Anne told him, and Harry felt his eyes bulge and his face heat up as Louis let out an awkward cough beside him.

“Mum seriously you’re taking this the wrong way.” Harry spoke again, his voice quieter this time.

“Honestly Harry it’s fine, it’s my own fault for not putting two and two together when I saw the shoes in the hallway, I just assumed they were spares left here from last time.” Anne told him, before turning round as the kettle boiled; Harry leading Louis over to the table to sit down across from Robin who gave them both a warm smile.

“So what did you say you’d come down for?” Harry asked his mum, determined to get rid of the awkward tension settled around them.

“Well we remembered we hadn’t restocked this place since the last time you and the boys came down; and when you’d told me you had decided to spend a few days away from the spotlight with Louis, I thought you might have wanted to come here since you’ve always said it’s a way of escaping and I thought I better make sure there’s some food here; I was right.” Anne told them, pulling out 4 mugs from the cupboard for cups of teas.

“And it’s nice seeing you, I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever since your always either somewhere with the band or Louis’” she adds on as well.

“I know sorry, I’ve missed you loads though.” Harry replied, a small smile curling onto his face and Louis patted his knee.

“Don’t be sorry sweetie, it’s your happiness that’s most important and I know that the boys and Louis make you happy.” She tells him, bringing over the 4 mugs of tea and sitting down beside’s Robin.

“Well you’re here now so we can have a nice catch-up.” Harry told her and she smiled before taking a sip of the tea.

-

Harry and his mum got a well deserved catch-up which resulted in Harry and Anne decided to have a family day in the Bungalow the next day. Anne had phoned Gemma who said she could come down, and then proceeded to phone up Louis’ mum who agreed for her and the girls to come down, which definitely made Louis’ happy since he felt like he hadn’t seen his mum or sisters in ages. 

Once the arrangements had been sorted and tea had been and gone; Anne and Robin decided to head home for the night, saying they’d prefer to sleep in their own bed but they’d be back in the morning. Given the boys some time alone and Louis definitely hadn’t missed the wink Anne had thrown their way as she was leaving, and if the blush on Harry’s cheek was to go by he hadn’t either.

But just because of the wink and Anne’s dirty thoughts made the boys blush with embarrassment it didn’t mean they weren’t going to act on them. So now the two were curled up together in a mess of limbs, neither of them caring about the stickiness or sweat that covered their bodies. The TV was turned on, some music channel that was playing the top 50 90s songs but neither of them were paying attention to it. 

Harry was too busy playing with Louis’ small nimble fingers that he had locked with his own hand that covered the older boys hand almost completely, while also listening to his heartbeat that was beating inside his chest where Harry’s head lay. Louis was focused on Harry’s curls, playing with them like he loved to do so much; the dull ache in his arse making him smile as well since it was a sign that Harry was back to himself; he was no longer the sad, slightly depressed shell of Harry that Louis had seen last night. 

He was back to the fun, lively Harry; the Harry he fell in love with that could love anyone, and always find the good in a person, even if it was someone who’d murdered someone else. The Harry that might be younger but he could take charge and dominate – a trait that he secretly loved but never admitted because he was aware it’d go straight to Harry’s head and make him slightly more cocky than he already was – and usually always get what he wanted. It was the Harry that was completely happy because he was with the people he cared about the most and who he’d do anything for.

“You don’t mind about family day tomorrow do you? I know we said it would just be us and if you want to cancel it and just spend the day together that’s perfectly fine.” Harry muttered into the skin of Louis’ chest.

“Don’t be silly babe, I’m so happy at the idea of seeing mum and the girls, feels like ages since I last saw them with Uni and it’ll be so nice getting to spend the day with them, and even better with you and your family here as well. I honestly can’t wait, and we’ll still get to spend time together anyway; it’s not like you’ll be in one corner with your family and I’ll be in my corner with mine. The girls will want your attention just as much; the twins will be braiding your hair and putting blusher on your face within the first 10 minutes.” Louis told him, a fond smile on his face and Harry chuckled.

After another 5 minutes they both decided to go to bed, because known their luck their families will be banging on the door at 8am the next morning, so they climbed underneath the bed covers before wrapping up together once again, Harry tucked safely against Louis’ side in a tight embrace.

“Love you Lou” and “Love you Haz” the last words spoken before they fell into a comfortable, happy slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you guys enjoy it, sorry for the late update i'm going to try get quicker with them. plsu it's half term here in england so hopefully i'll get it done quicker :)


	9. Chapter Seven, A Day With The Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The family are over to spend the day with Louis and Harry. (just a bit of fluff before it's all angst and upset harry again)

Like Louis predicted, their families showed up early the next morning; they hadn’t even gotten out of bed when they arrived, waking up to the sound of voices sounding through the bungalow at 9am. It seemed as though both Louis’ and Harry’s families had turned up together because he’s pretty sure that much noise couldn’t come from just Harry’s side, and if it was just his then they’d have needed to knock to come in because he’s pretty sure they locked the door last night.

Harry just moans at the noise before curling further into Louis’ side showing that he had no plan of waking up right now and he was staying in bed as long as possible despite the noisy girls. But Harry’s plan failed when two of the said noisy girls decided it wasn’t allowed that Harry and Louis were still in bed and came barrelling into the bedroom at full speed and jumping on top of them both causing two groans to sound through the bedroom followed by girlie giggles.

“You could be a little bit gentler to your old brother; you know I am very easily bruised.” Louis groaned, unable to move since Daisy was sat on top of him and Phoebe sat on top of Harry who had stayed quite – except for the initial groan – and kept his eyes shut.

“Come on, get up, we want to play games with you all day long, and we even brought Just Dance 4 over cause Anne said you have a big TV and wii and we want you to play it with us.” Daisy, the chattiest of the pair explained, slapping Louis’ face playfully while Phoebe started playing with Harry’s arm to get his attention, although he was pretty good at ignoring it and staying still, his head pressed into Louis’ chest and eyes closed.

“Louuuu, Harry’s ignoring me.” Phoebe then moaned, sticking her lip out in a pout and Louis felt a small chuckle leave Harry’s lips, the only sign that he was actually awake.

“Okay, don’t worry were getting up.” Louis told them, wiggling ever so slightly to attempt to get the twins to move so he could actually get out of bed; but this caused him to realise that he was naked, something he’d completely forgot about. Honestly him and Harry should probably start wearing clothes when the families about, first Anne walking in on them naked in the pool and today the twins walking into the bedroom with them naked; Louis just thanks his lucky stars that the duvet hadn’t slipped down to their ankles or off the bed completely during the night cause he really didn’t feel like giving his young twin sisters them sort of nightmares.

“Sweeties, neither me nor Harry are going to be able to get up and come play with you if you stay sitting on us all day, so why don’t you go get something set up while I get Harry woken up and then we’ll come out and join you.” Louis told the twins, a hopefully smile on his face which the twins luckily bought and went bounding off out the bedroom.

“Come on Hazza babe, time to get up.” Louis then spoke, shaking Harry slightly and attempting to get his arm back which was currently getting squished beneath Harry’s body and would probably be dead.

“mmm… don’t wanna.” Harry replied, snuggling further into Louis who couldn’t help but smile.

“Come on babe, before my sisters have decided they’ve waited to long and come back in, don’t fancy letting them see us in our birth day suites.” Louis tells him, shaking him even more. Harry just lets out another groan, but this time he opens his eyes, allowing them to blink a few times and adjust to the light streaming in through the thin curtains. Once his eyes had adjusted a small smile appears on his face, mumbling a morning and leaning up to kiss Louis.

Louis liked this Harry, the almost child-like version of Harry who was cuddly and wanted attention while practically looking like a puppy dog with his eyes heavy and thick with sleep and his hair all messed and sticking up in several directions. Harry moaned into the kiss, spurring Louis on to lick at the bottom lip for entrance and straddle the younger boy at the same time.

“hey boys, will you be wanting any break… oh” came the familiar sound of Louis’ mum’s voice, causing him to groan and break away from the Harry kiss to sit up properly; luckily the duvet and Louis himself managed to cover both the crotches so his mum couldn’t see.

“Honestly can we not get any privacy in this house.” He spoke, before Jay quickly left the room which he followed on with, “I think I’m going to have to lock us in an old abandoned house somewhere just so we can get some decent privacy.”

“Wouldn’t mind that to be honest.” Harry said with smirk before reaching up to kiss Louis once more.

5 minutes later both boys emerged from the bedroom fully clothed and headed towards the kitchen where they could hear voices and guessed everyone was gathered ; and when they entered the realised they were right.

“Morning sleepy heads, we’ve made you both a cuppa tea and there’s some toast on the table as well.” Anne tells them both with a smile before getting back into the conversation with Jay, both Lottie and Fizzy are sat at the table with their heads close together as they talk about something on one of their phones; Robin is stood by the counter, chatting about some TV show with Dan who is Louis’ mum’s boyfriend.

“The twins are also waiting in the lounge with some Wii game because apparently you promised to play it with them.” Jay adds in as the boys grab there steaming hot mugs, Harry sending dagger eyes Louis’ way but there’s a smile on his face and Louis knows Harry enjoys playing with the twins; so he grabs a slice of toast for them both and they head into the lounge to discover what the twins have waiting for them.

Phoebe attachs herself to Harry as soon as they walked through the door while Daisy stays in her spot on the sofa; Louis quickly took hold of Harry’s mug as well so his boyfriend could pick his sister up for a proper hug. Louis placed the two mugs and one slice of toast on the coffee table while quickly eating the other slice and reaching out for a hug from his sister who quickly jumped into his arms with a bright smile.

“So what have you girls set up for us to play?” Harry asked, Phoebe now sat on his hip with her arms wrapped tightly around his neck and Louis put Daisy into the same position.

“Just Dance 4, mummy bought us it only a few days ago and we really want to play it on the big TV.” Daisy tells them with a huge smile, pointing at the TV screen which has the Just Dance home menu up.

“Ooh that sounds like fun, are you going to pick a song for us?” Louis asked the twins, Daisy immediately jumping in with a reply once again.

“We’ve already got the perfect one picked out.” She tells them with a slightly cheeky smile.

“You’re going to love it Harry.” Phoebe adds on with her own cheeky smile before the girls are jumping down from the boy’s arms and grabbing the remotes, making both Louis and Harry chuckle as Lottie and Fizz come into the living room, clearly curious to not be left out despite not really wanting to join in.

The twins begin flicking through the songs list while Louis and Harry quickly drink their tea and Harry ate his piece of toast. The song What Makes You Beautiful started playing at the chorus, making Harry groan under his breathe and Louis to laugh along with the girls at the song choice.

“You had to pick our song? Really?” Harry asked, but he looks slightly amused as well.

“Yes.” Both girls replied in unison, and even Lottie and Fizz laugh at this; although when Louis looks over the quickly divert their gaze, going back to the cool teenager attitude they’ve developed recently.

“Now you have no excuse to loose this dance Haz.” Louis tells him, sticking his tongue out in a tease as Harry rolls his eyes, taking the wii remote from Phoebe and picking his character; the one he states resembles himself the most.

It’s clear to both of them when they start the dance that the twins have had a lot of practice at this dance before hand since they seem to have the dance moves perfected, and finish thousands of points higher than both Louis and Harry, with Harry coming in last much to everyones amusement except himself.

The continuing playing on Just Dance for a good hour, taking turns in doing 4 pieces, duets and solos. Louis & Harry doing a duet dance to the song (I’ve Had) The Time Of Our Life which has everyone in stitches, Lottie and Fizz eventually been persuade to dance and they do Beauty and a Beat with the twins, who also do The Ketchup Song; eventually the adults join everyone and Anne and Jay dance to Never Gonna Give You Up before all 10 of them dance to Livin’ La Vida Loca.

When the twins get bored, they decided to take a break and the twins start playing on some karaoke game they found in Harry’s cupboard which they all but beg Lottie and Fizzy to play on with them, giving Louis the perfect opportunity to talk and catch up with his mum. So he heads back into the kitchen with Harry, Jay and Anne, where Robin and Dan were already in the middle of a conversation but no one seemed to mind.

Jay took a seat beside Dan while Anne began playing around with making cups of tea for everyone again, since she always seemed to be doing this whenever they gathered in the same place. Making sure that Anne would have a seat Louis perched himself on Harry’s lap leaving the last seat free for her, and honestly he really didn’t mind sitting on Harry’s knee and from the squeeze his boyfriend gave him when he sat down then neither did he.

“So how’s Uni been sweetie, feel like I haven’t spoken to you in ages; or spoken about Uni in ages anyway.” Jay asked once they were all comfortable. Louis knew this was true since their last conversation they’d had was on Friday morning where he’d literally just sat and talked about Harry with her and what he should do.

“It’s really good, the work is obviously a little harder, but it’s really interesting this year and I’ve been introduced to so many great reads and we’ll be started a small group project next week and me and El are in the same group so I’m excited about that.” Louis told his mum, he was currently loving his course; they were so many interesting topics and subjects to study this year and he couldn’t even remember what had made him nervous about returning at the end of summer. 

“That’s great to hear sweetheart, nice to know it’s not all a big waste of money and you’re actually learning something and enjoying it at the same time.” Jay told him with a smile, before turning to Harry, “and what about you Harry, the album coming along well? I know that’s what you were working on last time I saw you.” 

“Yeah, we’ve finished it now so it’s ready to be released so we’re just planning all the promotion work for it really; which I’m looking forward to since I’m excited to get it out to our fans since we’ve worked really hard on it and we’re all proud of the outcome.” Harry tells her and Louis knows it’s all true, he’s been on the receiving end of plenty of phone calls Harry has made just praising the album and the work that’s gone into it.

Anne walks over with the cups of tea, placing one down in front of everyone before sitting down herself and Louis has a feeling that both his mum and Anne want to address the media situation that’s been going on recently, and the reason which brings Harry down to the Bungalow when he is suppose to be getting ready to promote. Anne hadn’t mentioned anything about it yesterday which had surprised him a little but he knew she was about to.

“Harry sweetheart, you know you can tell me anything right?” Anne spoke up as she looked at her son with slightly cautious eyes.

“Erm… yeah why?” Harry asked the confusion clear in his voice as he leaned forward to rest his chin on Louis' shoulder.

“Haz baby, we all saw the photos online and in the newspapers, and then I got Liam phoning me up telling me about you storming out of a meeting and he had no clue where you were even heading because you hadn’t told anyone and I spent hours worrying about you until I finally got a text letting me know you were safe and at Louis’ despite me knowing you’ve got work at the moment and I just want to know what’s happening.” Anne said, her voice so sincere and it looked like their was tears in her eyes. Louis felt Harry’s body tense beneath him, and rested his hands down on Harry’s knees as a hope of comfort.

“It’s, just it’s. Everything.” Harry stated, before he was suddenly in sobs, big fat tears rolling down his eyes; Louis was quickly jumping out of his knee and turning round to engulf the younger boy into an embrace. Anne and Jay were both to their feet as well, walking round to the back of Harry who just let the sobs keep coming, burying his head into Louis’ shoulder. Anne locked eyes with Louis, knowing immediately that whatever was happening in Harry’s life at the moment was serious; her own eyes glistened with tears as Jay put her hand on her shoulder, but before she could reach out for her son the voices of Louis’ sisters sounded.

The look in both the mothers’ eyes told him to take Harry to the bedroom, that the girls shouldn’t see this at the moment because it’d only make them ask questions and probably get upset themselves, so Louis quickly gathers Harry up in his arms and out the kitchen towards the bedroom they’d stayed in last night.

He sits them both on the bed; cradling Harry in his arms and brushing his fingers through his hair letting the younger boy get everything out. Louis’ beginning to think that after this weekend he never ever wants to see Harry cry ever again, not even happy tears.

Once Harry’s finally calmed down enough that he’s no longer crying and his breathe has returned to a normal rate he whispers a sorry in Louis’ ear.

“Hey babe, don’t you ever be sorry for anything that isn’t your fault. You’ve been treated disgracefully and if I’d been treated like you then I would have been an even bigger mess than yourself, you’ve been really brave about this whole thing and acted so maturely and you have nothing to apologise for.” Louis told Harry, holding him even tighter against his side.

“But I feel like I’ve ruined family day, all mum wanted to know was the truth and I couldn’t give her that because I just ended up in a puddle of tears.” Harry mumbles against the skin of Louis’ neck.

“Hey Harry sweetie, you definitely didn’t ruin family day okay. None of the girls saw you and your mum won’t be mad okay, she’ll understand that this is a difficult subject for you and won’t press you and I’ll explain everything to her later okay. Just let her know what’s going on so she doesn’t get too worried, but don’t you get too worried okay. No one is going to care about what happened, our parents will just be happy your okay and the girls probably haven’t noticed you’ve gone missing and will drag you straight into a new game when we get back out there. Today is family day, so I want you to promise me no more worrying and to just relax and enjoy yourself.” Louis tells him.

“Okay, I promise.” Harry tells him with a small nod.

“Pinky promise?” Louis asks again, holding out his pinky which makes Harry chuckle be he hooks his own pinky with it anyway. They sit on the bed for another few minutes, Harry tucked safely into Louis’ side until he feels ready to head back out there and see everyone, with Louis’ promise to explain everything to Anne.

Once Harry’s ready they head back into the kitchen, where everyone is sat talking and the girls are eating packets of crisps. The twins eyes seemed to light up when they see the two boys enter the kitchen, immediately discarding their own crisps to jump down from the table and over to them.

“We’ve sit up a new game we want to play.” They say with their cute smiles, Phoebe taking hold of Harry’s hand and Daisy taking Louis’.

“Girls, you go ahead with Harry okay, I just need a quick word with Anne.” Louis told them, placing Daisy’s hand in Harry’s other one so he could take them into the lounge. Anne had stood up when Louis had talked to Daisy, probably already knew what this was about and directed them into the outside patio away from everyone.  
Louis tells Anne everything, practically repeating everything Harry told him about what had been happening with management recently. About the forced kiss, the almost drunken breakdown after which involved the 2am phone call and the night at Zayn’s; he tells Anne about the meeting Harry had had with modest and what they’d said about their relationship, that Harry had been so mad he’d just felt like he needed to get away which was why he ended up at Louis’ flat without anyone knowing where he was.

Anne listens to it all with tears in her eyes, and when Louis gets to the end one slips down her cheek. He doesn’t hesitate with bringing her in for a hug; she’s almost a second mum to him now and he hates seeing her upset just like when he sees his own mum upset. They stay in the hug for about 5 minutes while Anne lets all the information fully sink in, and when they pull back Louis can tell she has cried abit.

“You go back to Harry and the girls alright, but can you send your mum out please.” Anne asks with a small smile and Louis just nods, he knows this is hard for her; to hear how awful they seemed to be treating Harry. I mean it’d been hard for him so it’s got to be even harder for her, it is her son. So he heads back inside and tell his mum, who excuses herself from the conversation with Robin and Dan to head outside and Louis heads into the living room.

This time the girls have got him on some exercising game that Louis’ seen before but couldn’t name. The twins seem to have him on some game that he really isn’t very good at, Lottie and Fizz are in stitches due to how embarrassingly bad he is and Louis can’t help but let out his own chuckle at his boyfriend as he sits beside his sisters. But Harry’s smile is back, big, bright and full of dimples just like it should be and that’s enough for Louis.

The girls are much better at this game than Harry once again, and when it ends a minute later he is last by at least 50 points and his extremely sweaty and out of breathe – which makes Louis wonder how he manages to get through an entire concert – much to the girls amusement; and Louis can’t help but smile because Harry laughs as well, and has that dazzling smile on his face which makes Louis reach out and circle his arms round his waist to pull him back onto his knee and kiss his cheek.

The twins grow bored of this game much quicker than the last, and can’t decided on another game when they look through Harry’s box of them once again so Harry suggests they have some lunch and then go for a swim in the pool which they seem ecstatic about. So the twins climb onto Harry’s and Louis’ hip and all 6 of them head into the kitchen.

All four adults are sat at the kitchen table and immediately quieten when they walk in, smiling up at them. Anne’s eyes are a little red to show she’s been crying and Harry squeezes Louis’ hand slightly when he sees this.

“Harry said we can have some dinner and then go in the pool.” Daisy says excitedly, clapping her hands and oblivious to the slight tension settled around them.

“Well we best see what we have to eat then.” Anne says, her smile growing slightly as her and Jay start preparing food, the tension slowly started to melt away.

-

By the time the sun was starting to go down everyone was tired out, the afternoon haven been spent in the pool, playing football and even more dancing on the wii. Both Harry and Anne’s moods have increased and they are back to their happy cheerful selves as Robin and Dan decided to have a campfire out on the terrace to end the night with.

The girls are tired but excited all the same, roasting marshmallows and making smores around the fire where they’ve all huddled round to keep warm; the twins wrapped up in a big blanket on one of the chairs with chocolate covering their mouths, Harry and Louis are snuggled up on the chair beside them, their own blanket wrapped around their bodies and the hands linked together between their bodies.

Lottie and Fizz both have their own chairs but they’ve pushed them together enough that their touching so they can share private conversations between just themselves, Anne and Jay have their chairs pushed together as well so they can talk better, along with Gemma who had turned up earlier in the afternoon and stayed for the campfire. Dan and Robin are stood on the patio cooking a few items of food on the small disposable BBQ.

Louis thinks it’s a bit daft practically having a BBQ when it’s so close to winter and the temperature around them is sure to lay a blanket of frost over the garden tonight. But then Harry’s whispering in his ear and snuggling closer into him and he thinks that honestly he doesn’t want to be anywhere else right now. 

They share a burger and sausage between themselves, taking small bites before passing it to the other while talking between themselves about absolutely nothing, and when Anne has to go take a phone call they let Jay and Gemma join in and quizzing Harry about the new album and what it’ll be like; and Jay's even requesting Harry give them a sneak peek in the form of a campfire song.

But then Anne returns, and the smile isn’t on her face anymore which makes everyone look up concerned as the laughter and chatter dies down, and Louis feels Harry squeeze his hand as he asks his mum if everything is okay.

“That was Liam, said he’s been trying to get hold of you all weekend. There’s a picture online, apparently it’s blurry but they think it was taking outside Louis' apartment on Saturday morning, it's of you guys and you're holding hands." Anne tells them weakly and Louis’ pretty sure the blood has drained from his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you guys liked it, kinda a filler chapter and the nasty stuff will start again next chapter. although atm I have alot of work happening with my extended project at college so it's taking up alot of my time, i'm hoping it won't stop my weekly updates but heres a warning, and like I said you can follow me on either twitter (xlillymaee) or tumblr (everythingsfine-ishiplarry) for update progresses. and thansk to everyone who left kudos on the last chaoter, love you xx


	10. Chapter Eight, Back To Management's Office

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry meets with management to discuss the leaked image.

“Harry love you really should calm down baby, it’ll be no good if you go in there and just shout and scream now will it.” Louis told Harry, reaching over the gear stick to take his hand to try help him relax. They were currently speeding down the M1 at 70 mph on route to London. After Anne had informed them last night about the picture of them online they’d immediately rung Liam back to have everything explained.

He’d told them it’s extremely blurry and actually kind of hard to tell it’s them two, that it was a fan picture which had been posted online with a tweet saying ‘guess our Harry isn’t such a ladies man after all’. He told them that many fans weren’t willing to accept it was Harry, saying the picture was fake and of some other random gay couple that the fan wanted to pass off as Harry to cause trouble. But of course the boys had known it was them two, and when management had caught wind of the photo they had known as well.

They’d spent half an hour on the phone and a meeting had been arranged this morning for Harry to come in and see management, one which he’d been reluctant to agree on at first but eventually did when Louis agreed to attend the meeting with him. So after spending one more night at the Bungalow they’d pilled into Louis’ car in the early hours of the morning so they could get back to Louis’ apartment block to receive Harry’s car and still have time to get to the meeting at 10am.

“There is a photo of us together out there Lou, management are going to be furious; they were angry when we were spotted leaving a bar together and you were like 20 fucking miles behind me.” Harry replied, letting go of Louis’ hand to change gear and add a little more onto the accelerator to speed up slightly to try and calm his nerves.

“I’ll be there the entire time with you Haz, and trust me getting yourself all worked up will just make everything ten times worse because they’ll sense it and probably use it against you. So just calm down and slow down slightly, we don’t want to die do we.” Louis tells him, stroking a few of Harry’s stray curls away from his face and letting himself relax when Harry relaxes his foot from the accelerator a little.

They sit in silence for the rest of the journey, humming every now and then to the radio; but unlike their journey to the bungalow two days ago that was filled with laughter and banter, this one was just filled with some form of tension. Harry let his hand come down and entwine with Louis’ own when they entered London and they both knew there was only about 15 minutes before they’d reach Management’s Office; and when they finally pull up in the car park Louis can feel Harry practically shaking with his worry and nerves.

“Remember baby, stay calm and don’t let them get to you; they’ll feed off your nerves so you’ve got to make sure they can’t. Plus I’ll be right there with you the whole time okay.” Louis told him, trying to make him calm down some more before they entered managements office. When he was sure Harry was calm enough to head inside, the both climbed out the car; a big black car was parked right beside Harry’s designated parking spot and they guessed it had been used to bring the other 3 band mates in for the meeting since they’d have likely demanded to be here as well.

They walked into the building with a safe distant between them in case of any lurking fans or paparazzi, after this fiasco you didn’t know where they could be hiding. But once they were inside the building, with the safety of blacked out windows and well away from the public, Harry reached out for Louis once again, linking their fingers and Louis only squeezed back as reassurance.

The boys are waiting in the reception area and all get a look of slight surprise when they see Louis, which didn’t really shock him since it wasn’t planned he’d be coming down with the boys, just him and Harry. He give them all a small smile, Harry unable to manage this as he just walked straight over to the desk to find out where he was needed for the meeting; and the glare he gave the man behind the desk showed that Harry was beginning to grow angry now instead of worrying.

The man told them that some guy named Gary – Louis though he knew the name from somewhere and guessed he was a man in charge or something – was waiting for them on the top floor in the same room as Friday. Harry just nodded before marching down the corridor in the way of the lift, dragging Louis with him and the other 3 hurrying to catch up. Once they were all inside the lift, Louis turned to his boyfriend.

“Haz baby remember what we talked about in the car, about staying calm and not let them get too you too bad okay.” Louis told him, and Harry nodded his head, and despite Louis not been 100% convinced he let the subject drop and simply squeezed Harry’s hand once more, but not making any move to pull them apart.

The lift ride was practically silent the rest of the way up, a layer of tension settled around them as Liam kept swapping glances with Louis - who knew the younger boy was probably worried that Louis’ presence would make everything 10 times worse - but honestly Louis really just didn’t give a fuck because he wasn’t just going to sit around and wait for Harry to show up at his doorstep once again, he was going to be here for Harry and make sure everything went fine and the younger boy didn’t have another break down.

Once they’d reached the top floor Harry’s anger seemed to have gone slightly and his nerves seemed to be back, but Louis squeezed his hand once again to show he was right there and the curly haired boy stepped out the lift, taking a deep breathe and then continuing the walk, Louis right beside him and his band mates just behind him making sure they showed him support.

Gary and his team were already waiting this time, and Gary visibly tensed at the sight of both Harry and Louis before rolling his eyes when the other 3 shuffled into the room.

“I think we requested Harry and Harry alone.” Gary said with his tight lipped mouth, like he was attempting to keep a scowl at bay.

“Yeah well if you think we’d let you pressure Harry into things he didn’t want to do, or upset him last time then you’ve got something wrong with your head; we aren’t ever leaving you alone with Harry ever.” Zayn told them, stepping forward to be in line with Louis and Harry and glare at Gary.

“Why don’t you all take a seat?” Gary replied, gesturing to the seats in front of him; Harry pulled Louis over to the two in the middle and when they were seated moved his chair to be as close as possible to Louis’ while the other boys took seats around them.

“Now I’m pretty sure you all know exactly why you are here today.” Gary tells them all, looking down at the piece of paper he has laid out on the table in front of him.

“Yes because an extremely blurry picture that you can’t even make out properly of Harry and Louis emerged online and you lot have basically shit yourselves about it.” Zayn answered for them, leaning forward to rest his elbow on the table.

“Exactly, it’s like he ignores every single thing we say all the time; it’s like he doesn't give a damn about anyone else he just lives by his own rules.” Gary tells them, leaning forward also as if to show he wasn’t intimidated; Louis felt Harry tense beside him and reached out to retake his hand underneath the table knowing that Gary’s words will have hit Harry.

“Don’t you even fucking dare bring this round on Harry, he has done nothing wrong.” Niall says, anger seeming to rise out of his body as he voice got louder with every word.

“Who’s fault is it? Harry was the one that went off gallivanting with him all weekend after we’d warned him about it in the meeting, told him that no good would come from it and that he should stay away but no did he listen.” Gary shouted across the table, making Liam flinch but the other 4 just gaining with their anger.

“IT’S YOUR FUCKING FAULT FOR MAKING HARRY SO FUCKING UPSET, HE WOULDN’T HAVE RAN TO LOUIS IF YOU HADN’T BULLIED HIM; AND HE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO GO AND SEE HIS FUCKING BOYFRIEND WHENEVER HE FEELS LIKE IT, HE SHOULDN’T BE FORCED TO HIDE IT OR BE TOLD WHEN AND WHERE HE CAN SEE LOUIS JUST BECAUSE HIS MANAGEMENT TEAM ARE HOMOPHOBIC ARSES. YOU ARE THE ONES WHO ARE FAULT, WHEN YOU REFUSED TO LET HARRY HAVE FREEDOM AND TRIED TO FORCE HIM OUT OF A RELATIONSHIP THAT AT THE MOMENT BRINGS HIM THE ONLY SOURCE OF HAPPINESS.” Niall all but yelled, his face practically turning red as he stood from his chair and leaned across the table, Zayn looked ready to join him any minute, Gary looked shocked, Harry bit his lip in worry, Louis squeezed Harry’s hand and Liam stood up and placed both his hands on each of Niall’s arms.

“Come on Ni, don’t get yourself all worked up yeah. Sit down and calm down abit.” He whispered, but a silence had settled in the room now and everyone heard it anyway.

“Yes Niall, listen to Liam, wouldn’t want you get all worked up over something so stupid.” Gary spoke calmly a straight mouth returning to his face.

“Don’t call it stupid, he was just sticking up for his best friend since he’s been treated like shit on the bottom of a shoe at the moment.” Zayn snapped, looking just as furious as Niall who was attempting to calm down with the help of Liam.

“That’s not true, we are doing our job which is making sure you have the best chance with your dream as possible and Harry just keeps disobey our rules every time.” Gary replies back and Louis feels Harry tense, but strokes his fingers over his palm as comfort.

“No your just been homophobic twats that only think of us as money selling objects, your scared that we’ll drop all our fans if they find out that the ‘ladies man’ of the group is in fact in a long and loving relationship with another male, you think that we won’t sell copies every time we realease something just because Harry sleeps beside the same man every night rather than a different girl ever week.” Zayn states, not backing down at all and Harry getting tenser with every exchange despite Louis’ attempts to keep him calm and relaxed as possible.

“Look I started in this business when I was 21 and have been working in it now for nearly 30 years, I know how it works and I know what you need to do to sell records. They like this clean cut image, they like their pop stars to look the best, they like to make sure they aren’t seen getting drunk all the time or doing drugs, and they like to see them with girls on their arms; weather it be a different girl every week or the same one for a long term, it gives them hope they have a chance with you which keeps bringing them back for more.” Gary explained, rolling his eyes at the same time like he was annoyed that they didn’t already know this, like it was obvious.

“You may have been in this industry for 30 years but I’ve been living in this generation my entire life and people are much more accepting these days. People care about music now a days, care about it more than the way people look, I mean no one can argue that Dappy isn’t the best looking bloke in the world and he does drugs, drinks and gets arrested a lot but people still buy his music, because they don’t care what he does they just enjoy his music and so they buy it. 

The society we live in, and the generation of people that buy our music are much more acceptable; they wouldn’t give a fucking damn about the fact that Harry’s sexual preferences come in the form of males, they’d still buy our album, buy our singles, and buy our concert tickets. And yes we may loose a few fans but that doesn’t matter because we’d have the ones that stuck by us, that’d keep buying our music. In today’s society people don’t care about people with different sexual preferences, they just accept it. Hardly anyone out their would actually care about Harry and Louis’ relationship unless they were extreme bible huggers and there isn’t many of them left.” Zayn replied back, not letting go without getting his point across. 

At that moment Louis felt extreme gratitude towards the younger boy, he’d never seen anyone stick up for someone else’s relationship like Zayn just had. He felt Harry loosen up slightly as well and knew he too felt so much for what Zayn had just done. Looking around the room Niall and Liam were smiling at Zayn and looked proud of their band mate, while Gary sat there in shocked silence again. There was no hiding the fact that he hadn’t expected Zayn to say exactly that and he was calculating a reply to try get his side back on track.

“I’m not saying that today’s society isn’t more accepting, but it still wouldn’t be ready for something like this. Just look at Joe McElderry, he won x factor then he announced he was gay and he’s barely had a career since.” Gary told them with a stern look after several moments, making Harry tense up once more.

“Joe McElderry didn’t have a massive fan base behind him; Joe McElderry wasn’t in a band which had another 3 straight men singing beside him. Plus you have no evidence that it was Joe’s sexuality that caused him a lack of career. The better evidence is that fact that barely any of the male x factor winners have had a good career, I mean where the hell is Steve? Or Leon? Or Matt? None of them have had really successful careers either, and none of them have homosexuality preferences. So you can’t use that as evidence, it doesn’t fit this situation in the slightest.” Zayn snapped back, and it was like he was the spokesperson in this room now; and Louis was glad that the boys had turned up today even after they’d only requested Harry because he’s pretty sure they wouldn’t have been able to hold on as long as Zayn.

“Look Zayn stop doing this back and forth thing okay, I have been working in this industry for 30 years now and I know what I’m doing. If you knew so much then you’d be sitting in this seat instead of in that seat and you wouldn’t be performing or recording. Now the public want a Harry Styles that likes girls, that wants girls. Not a Harry Styles that has a boyfriend; and with everything that’s happened recently, with Harry been too careless by leaving gigs with Louis and having Louis attended practically all his appearances; and then this pictures emerges online of Harry and Louis holding hands we need to do some damage control, and the only way to do this is by getting him a girlfriend.” Gary tells them, and this tips Harry over the edge.

“No I’m not doing it, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I will be pictured leaving places with as many fucking models and girls as you want me too; but I will not under any circumstances pretend to be in a relationship, it just not going to happen, not now not ever.” Harry snapped, his voice rising slightly and Louis gripped onto his hand to make sure Harry remained seated and didn’t do anything stupid. Everyone knew what this subject was like with Harry, they knew he wasn’t ever going to sign on to something like this.

“Stop been so silly Harry, this is the only solution and besides we’ve got everything sorted out okay. We thought I’d be better for you to date someone the public already know and love; and it just so happens that we can get Taylor Swift, everyone knows and loves her. She’s an American sweetheart that has millions of fans; she’s recently ended with her previous boyfriend giving us the perfect chance. You’ll date her for a few months, maybe up until the 2013 Brits which will give you the chance to promote yourself to Taylor’s fans as well, giving the band more publicity while also showing that despite you been a womanizer you are also able to commit to a relationship as well.

We’ve already cleared it with Taylor’s people, although they have asked us that Taylor does not find out about Louis; that they want Taylor to believe it is a real relationship that they want to set up rather than something to cover up. They want to have you meet for the first time next time we fly you guys out to America for promotion, but they want to have the first rumours out there sooner than that, build up the possible relationship before anything is confirmed.” Gary told them, reading from the sheet of paper he had in front of him.

“Fuck off.” Harry all but scoffed and Louis squeezed his hand worried for an explosion.

“Excuse me?” Gary asked, but it wasn’t really like he wanted an answer.

“You heard me, I’ve told you I’m not having a fake girlfriend, and I’m definitely not with someone like Taylor Swift. She’s the biggest fucking slut out there, she dates every guy to ever cross her path and gets away with it by writing sad breakup songs about them while wearing outfits that cover her entire body and stays in her house instead of been a normal young person who goes to parties. Like you honestly thought Taylor was a good idea, like that would persuade me to think about hiring a girlfriend. Yeah right, do you think I’m going to let her believe she’s in a relationship with me so she can go and write a fucking song about me and make me look like the bad guy. I saw what she did to Joe Jonas, to John Mayor so yeah I’m totally going to let that happen. I’m not getting a fake girlfriend and that’s final.” Harry told him, a bored blank look on his face to try and convey the fact it wasn’t getting to him despite everyone knowing it probably was.

“Look Harry, you signed a contract that said if you want to stay in this band while been looked after by our management team then we can control exactly what the media says and does about you while portraying a good image for the fans. You disagree to this and it’s breaking that contract, we could very easily sack you.” Gary told him, a tight expression on his face and Harry momentarily stiffened at his words.

“Fine then, I’ll save you the trouble. I quit.” Harry stated, and Louis felt his eyes widen as he said Harry’s name right at the same time Gary said a spluttered what.

“You heard me; I’m not going to stay in this band if I have to date Taylor or any other girl. I signed up because I wanted to sing music because that’s what I enjoyed, I didn’t sign up to be pulled around like a puppet on strings, to be told who I can and cannot be in a relationship; and keep up an act.” Harry yelled, before standing up from his chair and dragging Louis up with him.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Harry, I think this may have gotten out of hand, I think we all need to calm down and think rationally.” Gary stated, suddenly worried having not thought Harry would be the type to leave.

“If I need a beard then there is nothing to talk about, I am not going to do anything like that no matter what. I care about my relationship and love Louis to much too ever even thing about it. I am perfectly fine with having to hide my relationship and see Louis behind closed doors; but I won’t have a beard and that’s final. I’d rather loose this job than Louis, so you can contact me when you’ve made up your mind.” Harry stated with a sense of finality, before leaving the office with Louis in tow, not waiting for an answer from Gary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fyi i don't hate taylor.
> 
> okay so sorry for the late reply, any one who follows me on tumblr or twitter will know it's been abit of an emotional week this week which is why i didn't write as much, but i'm going to attempt to get back to the weekly updates. and you can follow me on tumblr or twitter for more information about updates, or leave a comment and i'll always reply :)


	11. Chapter Nine, I Miss You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis' back in Manchester while Harry is still in London, and they just kinda really miss each other.

Harry has officially decided that there is nothing worse than waking up in a huge king sized bed alone with one side cold and untouched. He honestly hates it so much that he considers sleeping in the single bed that lies in the spare room for guests; because honestly he never has a guest over that doesn’t share his own bed, and at least in a single bed there isn’t enough room for more than one person so that would make it easier waking up alone.

He pulls back the duvet that’s been wrapped around his body alone and slips his feet into the slippers that lay by his bedside; with the winter coming up and no warm body to wrap himself around, he wore a pair of pinstriped pyjama pants and a thin but long sleeved pyjama top rather than going commando or just his boxers.  
Once he’s out of bed he pads down to the kitchen to make himself a hot cup of tea and some slices of toast for his breakfast. He doesn’t have that long before he has to leave for some promotion anyway, he knows that today’s schedule is booked solid and in a way he’s grateful since it’ll give him something to preoccupy his mind rather than the empty sheets that have been a permanent fixture on his mind for the past 5 days of his life.

He slips into a pair of extra skinny jeans that keep showing up in the post and he has to struggle just that little bit more with fitting into them, but the girls love them and that’s all that matters right. He pulls out a band t-shirt from his wardrobe, it’s fairly tight around his chest and rises up against his stomach and this prompts him to realise that it’s not actually his own shirt, but he doesn’t care because he likes the shirt and the smell so he just pulls out a navy blue over shirt to wear as well, this way it’ll take away from the fact the top he’s wearing is slightly too small.

He doesn’t know what time the car will be arriving, he remembers been told yesterday but he wasn’t really listening. But with the schedule they’ve got today he guesses it won’t be long and heads back downstairs into the living room with phone in hand.

It’s not even 9 o’clock but he’s got a message from Louis saying ‘Good Morning Sunshine’ and he knows the older boy had a class first thing this morning. He sends a reply back, but doesn’t hope for a quick return since he knows he’ll be too busy listening to some professor talk about books and other englishy stuff that Louis’ explained a thousand times but Harry’s never managed to remember.

He logs onto twitter which hasn’t been a regular thing recently, because he has to follow managements strict instructions otherwise they get deleted, but he sends out a tweet about looking forward to the day ahead despite it been a long one. He knows somewhere in Modest Office someone will be nodding their head in approval, and it’s the main reason he tweets it to be honest, to keep them happy and off his back while Zayn, Niall and Liam work on this plan they’ve got going on. 

Harry doesn’t know what this plan is exactly, his band mates had just explained to him and Louis that they were determined to help them out and had a plan in progress, but to do this they wanted Harry to agree to just let things calm down with management for the moment, not to kick off with what they do and just try ignore it or go along with it best they can. Harry had obviously agreed, as long as they didn’t make him date Taylor or anyone else, and that if they hadn’t found a solution by Christmas the plan was off.  
So with the plan in place Louis had headed back to Manchester so he didn’t miss anymore of his lectures and seminars since he already had a lot to catch up with; and Harry was left alone in the big empty house that made him feel even more alone and wishing he’d stuck with the flat he’d originally rented when he first started in the band.

His tweet had received over a thousand retweets already but he didn’t really thing about it as he searched that all too familiar username that he’d been banned from following but never stopped visiting on most days. Louis didn’t tweet much, but Harry liked to check just in case; although the older boy mainly used it to tweet lyrics or reply to Eleanor if she tweeted about a day they’d spent together. The last tweet Louis had sent the night before, and Harry was only just seeing it, and the words made his insides feel funny suddenly.

“Nothing’s worse than missing someone who holds your heart and not knowing when you’ll next be holding them.”  
Harry knows the tweet is about him, of course he does, and he wants nothing more than to reply, tell him he can hold him whenever he wants because honestly right now Harry only wants Louis. He wants to make an indirect tweet of his own that links to Louis’ tweet, that will be taken down almost straight away from someone in the offices but he knows Louis will see because the boys has his tweets programmed onto mobile alerts. But if he ever wants to be free he has to keep his deal with the boys and that means keeping management happy.

Before Harry has time to ponder it some more his doorbell is ringing and he knows it’s one of the lads and that the car is ready, so he pockets his phone and pulls on one of his cleaner pairs of white converse before leaving his house. No ones at the door and Harry guesses who ever rang the bell got cold and headed back to the car since the cold air hits him and sends bitter chills down his spine.

-  
The lecture had finally finished and Louis couldn’t have been happier, he hadn’t slept much last night and his professor had a very boring voice that just made him want to fall asleep. He’d had to be elbowed several times to stop him from actually falling asleep and he was pretty sure he’d be borrowing El’s notes yet again since he hadn’t been concentrating much. But right now he was just happy to get out the lecture theatre.

There were no more seminars that day, so Louis was looking forward to stopping off at the coffee shop and then heading back to the apartment and having yet another lazy day. He packed his books and notepad back into his messenger bag and pulled out his mobile which he’d kept in there so it didn’t vibrate and disturb him during the lecture, although a couple of vibrates might have done him good with staying awake.

He checked over the texts, but there wasn’t much just a text from Harry in reply to his good morning text, a tweet from Liam about their long day of work ahead and another tweet from the one direction account which was a picture of the boys at their first interview place. Louis couldn’t help the small smile that spread on his lips when he clicked the photo and saw Harry wearing one of his own band shirts that he knew would probably be too small for the younger lad.  
El had packed up and was waiting for him so he locked his phone once again and followed her out; they’d walked to Uni this morning despite the cold weather because Louis was determined to stick to his vow of not using his car to drive to and from Uni.

“You coming to the coffee shop? Fancy a latte.” Louis asked her as they headed out into the cold air, Louis immediately zipping his coat up higher towards his chin to keep as much warmth as possible. 

“Go on then, it’s freezing and wouldn’t mind a nice coffee to get me warmed up.” El replied with a small smile and the two friends set off towards main campus, a silence between them that wasn’t awkward at all but calm and comfortable.

Louis hadn’t been in the best of moods since returning to Uni, he was missing Harry, worrying about everything that had happened, not knowing what Harry’s three band mates where planning; and El had respected him, known not to push him into talking and let him do his own thing. Talking about subjects that usually avoided Harry so his mind wasn’t always on the younger boy and Louis was thankful for that, glad he had El there, who knew him well enough to know his boundaries, when to leave him and when to try talk to him.

They start up a small conversation about Uni as they approach the coffee shop, and Louis hopes that Stan and his friends aren’t in there because he doesn’t feel like facing them today; not with their loud behaviour and obnoxious side comments they let slip every now and then. But nothing works out in Louis’ favour and he’s been called at from across the shop as soon as he walks in, loud cheers of his name reaching his ears and he had to bite back a groan.

“Hey guys.” He replies, making sure his voice stayed at a calm and collected tone that didn’t show any sign of annoyance or distaste. 

“What you guys up to?” He added onto the end since he didn’t really want to seem ignorant and Eleanor had already headed to the counter to order for the pair of them.

“Just having a music debate mate, talking about how the music industry is so shit at the moment.” Stan replied as he turned back to his friends.

“Look Stan mate, yeah there is some shit in the charts today, but when you’ve got people like Adele and Ed Sheeran in the charts you can’t say it’s all bad” Stan’s friend replied, Louis wasn’t sure of his name, John, James, Jack or something.

“Okay yeah, Sheeran is good. But then you have acts that can’t sing to save their lives and ruin it because they manage to sell copies due to the fact they are pretty, acts such as One Fucking Direction.” Stan tells him and Louis can’t help it, he feels himself immediately stiffen and he just hopes El gets back with the drinks soon.

“You alright mate? You look abit uncomfortable.” Another one of Stan’s friends replied, looking at Louis but Stan cut in before he could even get a word out.

“Just ignore him, he’s probably just a little tense because he worships that silly pop band, has a huge crush on the one that has slept with the entire female population of the UK and half the US.” Stan tells them, laughing and several others join in and Louis swears he wants to strangle him right now.

“Fuck off.” He gets out through his anger, he can’t believe how much of a dick Stan is actually been, he knew his best friend had changed from when they were in school, and he knew his friend showed off in front of his new friends, but he didn’t think he would make him look like some stupid prick who was lost in a fairytale as he crushed over some celebrity, who actually happened to be his boyfriend.

“Ooh, sticking up for some big shot who doesn’t know you exist all because you think he’s pretty. Honestly I beat you wank over him every night, hey maybe he’s your imaginary boyfriend.” Stan says, laughing along with a few of his friends, one or two of them stay quite though. Maybe they can see just how angry Louis is because he’s pretty sure if he where a cartoon character they would be steam coming out of his head by now; and just as he’s about to throw a punch at Stan’s face El is by his side and telling him to go. He doesn’t think twice, leaving the shop immediately behind El and he can hear Stan calling stuff out but he really doesn’t give a shit he just flips them the finger.

“Calm down Lou, you don’t want to get in a fight and cause some unnecessary shit. I know what they were saying about Harry was uncalled for but you’ve got to remember they don’t know that you two are together and getting into a fight because someone called him names will just make you look even worse. You’ve got to be the better person.” Eleanor tells him as they walk down the path away from the coffee shop.

“I know, I know. I just can’t believe him, I thought he was my mate and he goes and makes me look like some pathetic child that can’t get over some stupid celebrity crush.” Louis tells her, letting himself breathe a few times and calm himself before reaching for his own coffee that El had bought.

“To be honest you are a guy that can’t get over a celebrity crush sweetie.” El told him as she took a sip of her own coffee and Louis immediately pushed into her side with his own hip but they were both laughing and Louis felt better than two minutes ago.

-

“You alright?” Zayn asked Harry, sitting down beside the younger boy who was curled up on one side of a sofa while lazily thumbing through his phone.  
“Just abit tired, been a while since we did an entire day of promotion and I kind of forgot how much it takes it out of you.” Harry replies with a small smile and Zayn can fill in the blanks, knows that yes it is a long day but it’s probably taking it out of Harry more since he likely didn’t get much sleep because his mind is preoccupied with thoughts of blue eyes and feathered fringes.

“I know, you forget how hard long days are when you spend months just goofing around in recording studios.” Zayn tells his friend with a smile and a nudge of the shoulder.  
“Tell me about it, wouldn’t mind going back to the summer and recording the album, nice way to relax and wind down after the tour and we could just be ourselves.” Harry tells him, looking up from his phone and once again Zayn can fill in the blanks, knows that Harry liked the summer so much because he spent the majority of it with Louis. The pair had been given such an easy summer, management going easier on them as long as they weren’t spotted by the paps. Zayn goes to continue the conversation but the pair are called over to get their hair and makeup done before he has chance and Zayn follows his friend without another word.

They sit through a few more interviews, filming ones that won’t be aired for several months time but the want to get them done as soon as possible so they can focus on making live performances and jetting off around the world for more promotion. I mean they have a few performances to film for shows such as x factor, along with live interviews that’ve been requested and they’ll be preparing for Madison Square Garden soon as well which they are all excited for, including Harry.

Once they have finally finished for the day they all pile into one car to head back home, and when Zayn’s sees how tired Harry looks he immediately offers for the younger boy to stay at his own place. Perrie won’t be in because she’s off somewhere with the other Little Mix girls and Zayn thinks Harry really shouldn’t be alone right now, he’ll just spend half his night awake if he is; so when he suggests this he can’t help but let out a small sigh of relief when Harry agrees. He just wishes that he could see Harry’s real smile once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it took so long to update, if you follow me on my twitter or tumblr you'll know it's due to college work. but i've got a 2 week break starting friday so hopefully i can start updating quicker :) and thansk to everyone who comments and leaves kudos, you make me smile


	12. Chapter Ten, Awkwardness on Alan Carr

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One Direction film their third appearance on Alan Carr and things turn slightly awkward at one point, meanwhile Louis' spends the day thrown into his studies

The sofa was large enough to sit the four of them comfortably as they all sat down after hugging Alan in welcome, the boys had visited the studio so many times now they knew how to sit on the sofa without squashing each other too bad, although to be fair it’d be much worse if there was more than four, it fits them quite nicely.

Alan started with the comedy straight away, his tone of voice, his facial expressions and quick wit having the boys in stitches just by offering them some weird lemon flavoured alcoholic drink that was actually rather nice. Harry was relaxed as he sat between Zayn and Liam, picking at the nuts and sipping his drink as Alan began his interview. Alan had always been one of Harry’s favourite people, he use to watch Chatty Man with his mum as well as the shows he’d film while on tour, so Harry loved visiting Alan and getting to chat to him, this was the third time the boys had been on Chatty Man and it was probably his favourite interviews.

Alan is straight into the interview, asking about the language they’ve rumoured to have made up to communicate with each other, pretending to speak rude words to get the audience laughing as well as the boys. He then moves onto their ever rising fame, the stuff they’ve managed to get done in a year that still baffles Harry and his band mates. As Alan lists them he can’t quite believe it and he wants to take a moment to sink it in, but Alan’s back to his jokes and he knows he needs to join in after a few fans had took to twitter, mentioning his slightly distant look in a recent interview that was filmed a few days after him and Louis had departed ways once again.

Alan asks about Perrie next, Harry feels Liam stiffen slightly and knows it’s because he’s still getting use to the single life without Danielle, that’s its been so long since Liam was single during an interview it’s like reflex for him to answer a question on girlfriends yet he can’t right now since him and Danielle haven’t been together in about a month. Harry feels a knot in his stomach as well because he has a feeling Alan is probably going to mention his partying with girls left, right and centre.

Zayn finishes talking about Perrie and Alan looks at Harry, and for a second Harry thinks he see’s a flash of sorry in Alan’s eyes about what he’ll be asking next. Harry has always been convinced the older man sort of knows the truth in someway; Harry knows the older man doesn’t believe what he reads about him, believes that he doesn’t go out and sleep with every girl in London. And Harry thinks Alan kind of knows about his sexuality, Harry has never mentioned it but just by the looks he receives from the comedian, they’re knowing looks and Harry guesses that Alan probably does know. I mean they say that gay people somehow have a way of picking out another gay person don’t they, say is like a gaydar or something.

Alan obviously doesn’t know he has a secret boyfriend hidden in the closest as well as his sexuality but he definitely knows something, Harry can sense it as the comedian looks at him and starts talking about the girls Harry has been pictured with out and about in London, it hasn’t got the same tone to the questions he asked Zayn about Perrie.

He lists a couple of Harry’s mates that he’s been seen out with during August and September, and like always Harry just ducks his head and shakes it and feels lucky that Alan doesn’t push him for answers, just starts a joke about him pulling cougars in bars, having Niall join in.

“But in all seriousness, I heard you were thinking of settling down Harry.” Alan then says and the place seems to go silent as Harry looks up at the presenter with curious eyebrows, Alan taking the hint to carry on.

“I’ve been reading some things this morning and there’s quite abit of gossip about you wanting to start a committed relationship with a certain Miss Swift.” Alan continues and Harry feels his blood boil, and beside him Zayn reaches out and quickly pats Harry’s leg in comfort before retracting it back.

“Is it true?” Alan says after a beat of silence that seems to have stretched on for hours.

“Not at all, I’ve never even had a conversation with her that’s been longer than 10 words. I think we said Hi at some award show we were both at but that’s about it, I don’t even know her and don’t plan on dating her to be honest, i'm to busy with promotion and she’s honestly not my type. Plus she lives over in America and I live over here, we'd never get to see each other, I'd probably be hard enough dating someone in England, let alone someone half way around the world from you.” Harry says and he knows management will be hating him right now and this might be going against Zayn’s plan to listen to everything they tell him to, but he doesn’t care because nothing would ever convince him to agreeing to a fake relationship, never and he doesn’t care how much crap or punishment he gets, it’s just not going to happen, he told them that before and if they keep trying to spread some crappy rumours about him dating Taylor Swift then he’s going to shoot them down straight away without hesitation.

“Ah okay, thought we’d have got a bit more gossip there but…” Alan says, and then he’s straight back with the conversation, joking about James’ wedding before moving on to talk about the new album and single and Harry’s glad he doesn’t press the topic of ladies and just moves on, he’s had other interviews that have literally just gone on about his supposedly love life with these women he’s spotted with.

Alan cuts to a break after discussing the single, giving them time to prepare for the dance off. The cameras stop rolling and Alan continues joking with them until one of the producers call him over to get ready for the dance off.

“You alright mate, you held out good up there when Alan mentioned Taylor, thought you’d crack or summit.” Niall asked, leaning over Zayn to see Harry properly.

“Yeah I’m fine, I’m use to fighting off rumours by now and this is no different than every other time; every time they try to make another Taylor rumour I’m just going to deny it straight away.” Harry replied, and Niall just nodded his head before sitting back on the sofa, Liam shooting him a small, reassuring smile and Zayn patted his thigh in comfort but before they could say anything else Alan was heading back across the set and they were ready to role the next set.

There wasn’t much more of the show to film, just basically the next dance off which had back up dancers dressed like Alan and Jessie J judging it before they cut once again to get ready for Alicia to perform.

By the time the performance was done, and the boys had been taking backstage to change out of their show clothes and into the clothes they’d arrived in before chatting to Alan for a little while it was near 11pm when the boys finally piled into the car ready to get home.

It’d been a long day of promotion once again, filming for shows such as Loose Women, This Morning and a bunch of music channels and they were glad that Alan had been the last since he managed to keep them as uplifted as possible rather than them practically falling asleep on each other.

The car was quiet because sleep was catching up on everyone right now and they were all growing extremely tired, Liam was sat beside Harry and had rested his head on his shoulder about 30 seconds after the car left the studio, but Harry didn’t mind. 

He began flicking through his latest texts that consisted of two texts from Louis’ one which was a reply from one Harry had sent just before he’d been called onto set, and another just letting Harry know he was going to bed so he’d text him in the morning. He also had a multitude of texts from Nick which had become the norm since Harry befriended the older guy; he’d sent a few texts related to the previous conversation before he’d realised Harry was clearly not replying for whatever reason and begun just giving him a running commentary of everything he’d been doing that night.

Eventually all of them were been dropped off one by one, Zayn had offered for Harry to stay at his place like he had been for the past few nights but Harry decided that he should probably go home tonight. Harry knows Zayn doesn’t mind and neither does Perrie who got home 2 nights ago, but Harry feels he should give his friend and his friends girlfriend some space to be alone, plus he knows he needs to get back to his own house anyway, there’s no point in hiding away at Zayn’s to avoid the empty house so when the car pulls up at his house he bids a goodbye with Zayn who’s the only one left to be dropped off, before heading inside.

The house is cold since it hasn’t been in use for days and therefore no one has been putting the heating on, which Harry does straight away in a hope of getting the place a little bit warmer. He was tired in the car, but now he feels awake and knows he won’t be getting any sleep for a while longer now so he heads into his bedroom to change into something more comfortable.

Once he’s dressed in a oversized jumper and some tracky bottoms he heads to the kitchen ready to make himself a cup of Horlicks in a hope that’ll help him get to sleep, once the hot drink is made he heads into the living room and turns the TV on before laying down on the sofa and trying to find at least a decent film to watch.

-

Louis was exhausted but just couldn’t fall asleep; he’d been up since 6am this morning after probably 3 hours of sleep in total and been in seminars all morning before revising in the student library all afternoon. He’d been alone since El had been called into work at the last minute, and when he’d spotted Stan the male has simply turned away and Louis has directed his gaze back to his books and nothing had been said. Neither of them had spoken since the day in the café and Louis’ wasn’t planning on speaking to him anytime soon.

After a day of studying he’d got back to the flat at 6 and when El had got back at half 6 they’d both ordered pizza and sat and watched crappy sitcom repeats all night till they’d decided it was time for bed, but now Louis was laid wide awake staring at his ceiling. 

After what Louis deemed a suitable time of waiting to see if he could fall asleep naturally, he kicked off his duvet and pulled himself out of bed; maybe a hot chocolate might help him get some sleep. He made sure to be quite as he headed into the kitchen, shutting the door so the noise of the kettle boiling wouldn’t wake El up.

He grabbed his phone and began flicking through his twitter feed, although there wasn’t much activity since the majority of the people he followed were English and therefore asleep like he ought to be. As the kettle boiled his phoned buzzed making him jolt up, he’d received a twitter alert from Harry’s twitter and he clicked the message as he poured the boiling water into the mug that he’d already placed a spoon of galaxy hot chocolate powder into.

‘I thought warm, milky drinks were suppose to help you go to sleep?’ the tweet said and as Louis stirred the milk and chocolate powder together he wondered if this meant Harry was also struggling to get to sleep, or if the tweet had been posted earlier in the night and it was only now coming through to his phone. But as he contemplated his fingers seemed to work on their own and dial the number he had memorized by heart. It stopped after barely two rings and that familiar voice flooded his ear,

“Lou?” Harry sounded exhausted and Louis knew the younger boy had done and entire day of promotion today.

“So I was right when I read your tweet and though you might still be up.” Louis’ replied and he could already feel the smile spreading across his face as he picked up the warm mug and began to quietly make his way back to his room.

“Yeah you were, although I thought you were asleep since you text me goodnight a couple hours ago.” Harry spoke through the phone as Louis closed his bedroom door behind him.

“Couldn’t sleep.” Louis replied with a shrug of the shoulders, the ‘You aren’t laying beside me’ went unsaid but both boys knew all the same, once Louis had placed his hot chocolate down he proceed with the conversation. “So how’s your day been then?”

“As good as any promotion day can go I guess, we done a few interviews for a few day time shows like Loose Women and This Morning, as well as a few promotional stuff for music channels, a few fans got to come and interview us as well for some CBBC program, and then we did Alan Carr tonight, which always a good laugh.” Harry replied as Louis got himself comfortable on his bed.

“Awesome, I love your Alan interviews, I’ll have to set that on Friday night, did you guys have fun filming with him?” Louis asked.

“Yeah, he’s great with the audience and had us in stitches from the off, and we did another dance off which are always fun. Of course though he asked me about Taylor, said rumours have been going around about us two were started by the management team, denied it straight away though, don’t care weather they kick off or not. Anyway babe, how’s your day been?” Harry asked and Louis kind of wanted to ask more about what happened with Taylor been mentioned, but decided against it because his boyfriend clearly didn’t want to talk about it.

“Same old, same old. Had a couple of seminars this morning and then I spent the afternoon in the library been the brilliant student that I am and studied the entire time. The after my study session I came back to the flat and shared pizza with El while we watched crappy TV before heading to bed where I couldn’t sleep so decided to make myself a hot chocolate and then ended up ringing you and that’s basically what has happened today.” Louis told him, a humorous tone to his voice and a giddy smile on his face.

“Sounds fun, much more interesting than my day I must say.” Harry replied back with a humorous joke as well that had Louis beaming into the phone. 

The two ended up talking till about 3am when they both fall asleep with the phones still pressed to their ears, and for the first time in what felt like a long time they both slept soundly, feeling as close to each other as possible without been beside one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this took so long to upadate, I'm not going to lie I've lost abit of inspiration and been struggling with how to get to the next major part of the story without sounded repetative and boring everyone. But hopefully you enjoy this, and the next chapter will be uploaded quicker.
> 
> and oh my god I went to see One Direction on Wednesday and it was the best thing ever <3


	13. Chapter Eleven, Not That Office Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry gets called into managements office once again, and Louis is determined to finish his assignments early.

“Hey El, you coming to the library to do some studying or have you got work again?” Louis called through the apartment as he packed up his notepad and workbooks that he’d need to work on his latest assignment.

“I’ll meet you down there if you want, because I still need to shower and get all my stuff sorted so it’ll probably be another hour before I’m ready to head down there.” El called back as Louis grabbed both his messenger bag and laptop case, tucking his phone charger into the back pocket of his messenger bag to charge when at the library, before heading into the living room.

“Ah okay, I was going to take the car cause I’ve got quite abit of stuff to carry, but do you want it cause if so I’ll leave you the keys.” Louis asks as he sets down the bags to pull on his jacket and shoes.

“Nah it’s fine, I haven’t got that much cause I’m not working on my laptop today so I’ll just walk down. Besides it’s your car, you deserve first dibs.” El replies with a small chuckle. Louis smiles and grabs the keys before picking his bags back up and giving El a quick peck on the cheek as a goodbye and heading out the apartment.

He really wanted to get this assignment done as quickly as possible to give him a head start. Last year he had pushed it slightly and only just met deadlines and because of this he ended up having to stay until the very end of the Uni term whereas a few of his friends got to finish a few weeks early because they had already handing in there assignments and just had to revise for exams, and if Louis could turn in some papers early then it might mean he gets a few weeks off and he was more than desperate to spend time with Harry than ever before, he could easily do his revision up in London while staying with Harry, but he had to talk with his teachers all the time with assignments.

He dumped his bags in the passenger seat and climbed into his own seat, the Uni library was a slightly longer journey than the English block – by all of a minute – but Louis still felt guilty and lazy for taking the car, and if he hadn’t decided to do his assignment on his laptop rather than the library computers he’d have definitely have walked, despite the 3 degrees climate outside.

He pulled out of his designated parking spot and onto the main road heading for the University building he could already see in the distance. The library only had a small car park with about 9 spots, and the majority of these were filled with cars from the teachers and librarians working inside. You had to be extremely early to get any remaining spots so Louis ended up parking on the street just outside, glad that the road didn’t have double yellows lines painted on it or a pay machine nearby. Grabbing his stuff he got out the car and quickly headed towards the library, the journey being so short his car hadn’t really had time to warm up and he was getting rather cold; and the library was always a nice toasty temperature.

The main librarian greeted him as he entered, her name was Kate and Louis had become such a regular at the library this year that they had had quite a few chats and become quite friendly.

“Off to do some work again?” she asks with a smile, she was probably about late 30s and he found that talking to her was abit like talking to his mum, she made him feel comfortable and at ease.

“You bet, want to get this assignment over and done with so I don’t have anything to worry about.” Louis told her with a bright smile.

“You just want to get it done so you can go visit your lover boy for a couple weeks.” Kate says with a small laugh and Louis just pulls his tongue out before heading for the lift so he could head to the wifi lounge on the top floor.

Harry had popped up in conversation a few weeks back, he obviously hadn’t told Kate he was dating Harry Styles; but when he’d stayed back late one Saturday night a few weeks ago to get some work complete and she’d wandered up to see who was still in the library. When she’d spotted him she came over to talk and had ended up asking why a ‘young man like him wasn’t out at parties or on a date on a Saturday night like most Uni guys.’ He’d ended up telling her that he had a boyfriend up in London so he tended to save his money and try get his work done as quickly as possible so he could get down to London as often as possible.

When he was on the top floor he headed straight for his favourite spot, the table in the back beside the shelf that held the Enclyclopedia’s. No one barely ever came back here because they didn’t really need to use the Encyclopedia’s, and there was a nice big open window that give him lots of light and a nice view of outside whenever he felt like taking a quick break.

Once he was seated he booted up his laptop, he’d made sure it was fully charged last night and this gave him chance to charge up his phone before his laptop would need plugging in. His phone battery had being completely dead when he’d woken up on it this morning and he hadn’t been able to turn it on to send Harry a good morning text, and although Louis knew the younger boy had a day off today and therefore more than likely had slept in, but Louis still felt weird for leaving it this late to text, especially when he’d being up for a while now. As his laptop loaded he plugged in his phone and immediately turned on, he wanted a new phone because his had a crack all up the screen because once he’d dropped it out of his pocket when he was getting into his car and ended up running it over.

He guessed he was lucky El had found it before anyone else had picked up; but now it seemed to load really slowly, although he knew that if it wasn’t an iPhone then it probably wouldn’t work at all so he was lucky there as well. As soon as it was on and loaded probably it worked more or less fine but he hated having to wait for it to load, but his contract didn’t run out until the end of November so he had to wait until then. Despite Harry insisting he buy louis a new one, he always declined because he felt weird taking money or expensive things off Harry despite knowing he had alot of money spare in his account.

Finally his phone loaded at the same time as his laptop, his laptop was an ancient thing that he’d had since he was in Year 8, but it still worked fine and he didn’t see the point of trading it in. His screensaver was a picture of him and El at some fancy dress party they’d attended at the end of last year. He was dressed as Super Mario and El had dressed up like Princess Peach to match, when he was at home during Uni breaks he always changed it to a current photo he had of himself and Harry or just Harry, he’d previously had what he thought was an adorable picture of Harry sleeping which he’d taken during the summer when he’d woke before Harry did. But he knew the risks of getting caught and changed the picture back every time he knew his laptop was being used during Uni time.

He clicked the little icon at the bottom of his laptop that opened up his iTunes before sending Harry a good morning text, explaining he was late due to their lengthy conversation the previous night running out his battery. Once the text was sent his iTunes had loaded and he immediately clicked onto the Take Me Home album. The album wasn’t due out for another couple of weeks but Harry had managed to pull some strings and last week a hard copy had showed up at his door. Both him and Eleanor had had to sign for the album as well as a contract that stated they must keep the CD on total lockdown and not let anyone else here the songs from the album until after the release date; they’d both had to show the delivery man two forms of ID each to prove that he was handing over the album to the correct people. It’d been a bit of an ordeal but he’d gone through it with the Up All Night album as well.

Once they’d finally got the album they’d both sat together in the living room and just listened to it from start to finish. Harry hadn’t being able to get Louis a copy of the Yearbook version but Louis’ loved the regular album more than anything ever. He’d immediately burned the disk into his iTunes library – and then changed the songs titles, artist name and album to stuff like the Tweenies and Bob the Builder so if anyone accidently got hold of his iTunes account then they wouldn’t come across the 1D album and he’d just say he’d downloaded the songs for his twin sisters sake – and listened to it on repeat ever since. His ultimate favourites on the album being Last First Kiss, Back To You and They Don’t Know About Us but maybe that was him being biased.  
After setting the album on shuffle and plugging in his earphones he opened up the word document that contained his latest assignment as well as grabbing all his notes that had being shoved into his bag this morning.

-

Louis had being working for nearly 2 hours when he decided to take a small break; he’d wrote nearly another 5,000 words for his assignment and he was really proud. For the next part he needed to do some more research and get some more information before he could continue and he felt like this could wait.

He left his laptop switched on as he stood up for a quick stretch and a wander about, there wasn’t much on this floor because it was purely for those who needed wifi connection, the other floors were dedicated to different books and activities. After stretching he sat back down and opened up his tumblr. He had two accounts, one for himself but another where he posed as a 17 year old 1d fan girl account where he literally reblogged edits of the boys and Harry; both him and El had endless hours of fun searching his dashboard and the tags one night when they were bored.

His regular blog was just basically a blog of him ranting about TV, films and everyday life while he reblogged photography people and occasionally a starbucks coffee cup since he had a small obsession with that place. He had a few 100 followers which he felt was good since he’d had the blog for about a year now and it was nothing special. He had a few followers who liked to speak to him and he would class as good online friends of his, he also received a few anon messages every now and then which he was pretty sure came from the same person.

Logging on he realised he had 2 new messages in his inbox and smiled when he noticed it was from a lad named Ben who he often talked to and had fun conversations with, and then anonymous user who was complimenting his blog. He began typing out replies as Eleanor slid into the seat opposite him, he gave her a welcoming smile and she presented him with a hot costa coffee cup, which she’ll have bought from the costa café on the 3rd floor.

“Got much done then?” she asked him as she put her own paper cup down and began pulling out several notebooks from her bag.

“Yeah, finished the entire section C and I got abit more research that needs doing which I’ll do in a few minutes just decided to take a quick break” Louis told her, not letting his eyes leave the screen as he finished the 2 messages and began searching through the Harry tag – because come on he couldn’t resist.

“Impressive, you’re going to be star pupil at this rate, which will be a change from last year.” El teased him and he stuck his tongue out at her to show he knew she was joking but he kept his eyes trained to the screen.

The Harry tag was filled with a few old Harry photos, about 3 or 4 on repeat that Louis hadn’t seen in ages. All from the last few months of his school years and a little after that, ones that Louis was positive had being on Harry’s old Facebook account until it had being deleted once he found out he was through to the live stages of xfactor. Before he has time to ponder why these pictures were suddenly appearing his phone beeped with a new text alert, he hoped it was Harry since the younger boy hadn’t got back to him this morning but when he saw it was Stan he just rolled his eyes and opened it.

Well you sure kept that one quiet Tommo! The text said with a photo attached to it, and when Louis clicked on the photo to see exactly what Stan was talking about he’s pretty sure his heart momentarily stopped beating.

-

“You know I’m getting pretty tired of seeing these walls, it was only at the beginning of summer I was saying we’d barely seen inside this building and now I feel like I’m here pretty much ever day.” Harry complained as him and Zayn walked through the bleak office corridors to the meeting room they’d accompanied so many times recently.

Harry had barely being up and out of bed when his home phone was ringing and he was being called in for yet another meeting with members of their management team. He hadn’t felt like going in alone so he’d rang up Zayn since he knew Perrie was busy promoting with Little Mix today so the older boy would have nothing to do. He had considered phoning up all three of them, but he knew Liam and Niall were spending time with their friends today and didn’t really want to intrude since they didn’t get much time off.

Zayn had agreed to come with him to the meeting and Harry had pulled on some old jeans and a random band t-shirt before heading out to pick up Zayn, only then realising he left his mobile in his bed where it’d fell whilst he was asleep and that it probably would be dead and he should’ve put in on charge so he could get hold of Louis.

“I know what you mean, I feel like these walls might start haunting me in the night.” Zayn replied, bring Harry back to now. In the car him and Zayn had talked about what management could possibly be calling Harry in for, they hoped it wasn’t because he’d refused to confirm anything between himself and Taylor because they were honestly getting tired of having the same argument over and over, but apart from this they couldn’t think of anything else.

Walking into the meeting room he spotted Gary sat up in his usual seat and seriously wanted to roll his eyes at the man.

“See you’ve got one of your puppy dog with you.” Gary remarked as the pair sat down and Zayn just gave him a sarcastic smile before putting his feet up on the table to deliberately annoy the man.

“Can we just get this over and done with please, I’m pretty sure I left my baked beans in the microwave.” Harry told him as he sat down beside Zayn and the elder boy looked like he wanted to high 5 Harry for the comment.

“Well if you want to prevent your baked beans from being burnt then you stop making a habit of breaking the rules and obey us for once so we can stop dragging you into this office ever 5 minutes to try and do some damage control.” Gary replied and Harry hadn’t really expected a cocky reply. “Now I’m guessing you know already why I’ve called you in here.”

“If it’s about Taylor then yes, if it isn’t about Taylor then no.” Harry replied with a bored expression.

“No this isn’t about Taylor, this is about the new photos that have surfaced online today, photos that were not suppose to be leaked.” Gary tells him, and Harry knows his face turns into one of confusion because he is utterly confused as to which picture could have leaked that haven’t already leaked.

“I can tell by your face you are unaware of what I’m currently talking about.” Gary states, and when Harry nods his head the man continues, “So basically at around 8:30am this morning a few old photos of yourself began to surface on the internet by an anonymous user, we think they originated from a tumblr account but we aren’t 100% sure. By 9am 5 brand new and ‘exclusive’ images of you from where online and had been reblogged on tumblr around 5,000 times and had about 3,000 retweets on some twitter account. The photos that leaked were from your younger days, as we believe they were all taken before you joined One Direction.” Gary told Harry and Harry let his eyebrows crease together as he didn’t really understand why it was such a big deal, a lot of images from before the x factor had been leaked online and they’d never made a big deal over it.

“Why is this such a big deal? All of us already have photos online from before x factor.” Zayn asked for him.

“Because this was one of the 5 photos leaked online.” Gary replied, pushing a piece of paper forward in Harry’s direction, and he’s pretty sure his heart hit his throat. The piece of paper held an image that Harry hadn’t seen in a very long time, in about 2 years, but a picture of a memory he could remember extremely well.

His mouth fell open in shock as he looked at the piece of paper that held a good quality image of him and Louis. He remembered the day it had being took, it was just after his first audition and his mum had suggested they go out to celebrate him advancing onto the next round; him and Louis hadn’t being dating long but he’d still wanted the older boy to come out with them since he hadn’t being able to attend the audition due to an exam.

They’d got dressed in smart clothes and went to Rosso Restaurant in Manchester which Harry had being begging his mum to take him to since it opened, the picture showed him and Louis sat at the table in the restaurant, his mum had insisted taking pictures before the food came and Louis had slung his arm around Harry’s shoulders and brought the younger lad in closer with a fond smile before they both smiled for the camera.

Harry knew this was a tame picture of them compared to some of the photos he had stored on his very old laptops hardrive. There was photos of them kissing each others checks, kissing each other on the lips while they took selfies, there’s pictures of them curled around each other in hugs and on each others knees and backs, there’s selfies they’d took when having a lazy weekend at Louis’ when his parents and siblings had gone out of town and they’d being laid in bed and the images left nothing to the imagination of what they’d being doing. So Harry knew he was lucky it wasn’t one of those, because this one could be seen as two close friends, but he didn’t understand how it had being leaked when he was sure they only existed on his laptop memory, the laptop he had touched in two years and was packed away in some box in his loft.

“I don’t understand how this has gotten out?” Harry practically whispered as he kept his eyes on the paper, he felt Zayn shift beside him and knew the older boy will have wanted to see what the fuss was all about.

“Neither do we, we were under the impression that this photo was demolished along with the others when you said you deleted your old Facebook account.” Gary told him and Harry knew that, he’d being told to delete his Facebook account when he got through to the live shows, all 4 of them had being told to do so, and he’d done it immediately.

“I did delete my Facebook, I mean I saved this and a few other photos from my account onto my laptop. But I haven’t used the said laptop in years, it’s in a box somewhere in my loft just collect dust, I mean I don’t even know if it still turns on.” Harry told Gary finally putting the picture down to look at the man in front of him.

“Do you have any other social networking sites that you may have forgotten to delete, maybe a MySpace account?” Gary asked with a straight face. “I can assure you MySpace was dead long before I got with Louis.” Harry replied, desperate to roll his eyes. He knew he’d got rid of any photos of him and Louis that could cause suspition and he knew that the only place these photos were stored was on that old laptop. He was just as baffled about how the images had leaked as Gary. Just as Gary opened his mouth to speak though Zayn’s phone began ringing rather loudly, causing him to receive a rather nasty set of dagger eyes as he pulled it out of his pocket.

“It’s Louis.” Zayn told Harry with confusion that mirrored Harry when he realised his boyfriend was calling his band mate.

“Oh good put it on speaker maybe he can tell us how the image got out.” Gary replied and Zayn sent a small look to Harry before hitting speaker and saying hello.

“Oh thank god Zayn, I can’t get hold of Harry at all, I’ve tried his mobile and his house phone several times and he hasn’t picked up and there’s this photo of us that has somehow got out and I was worried that management would drag him in again and I wondered if you’d heard from him.” Louis said in one go and he sounded rather panicked.

“Hey Lou it’s me, I’m really sorry but I left my mobile at home without charging it this morning cause management rang me in about the picture quiet early and I needed to come into the office. Don’t worry okay I’ve got Zayn with me and everything will be fine babe.” Harry quickly replied, not wanting his boyfriend to have a panic attack or something.

“Yeah but Haz, there’s a picture of us online. I thought the picture had being deleted years ago when you deleted your Facebook; and I know and you know how pissed off management will be with you, that fucking dickhead screamed down your neck when there was a photo of me walking like a mile behind you, their going to react 10x worse now there is a photo of us sat together and looking abit cosy; I don’t want them making you feel like utter shit again.” Louis rambled, and Zayn had to cover his mouth to stop his laughter from bursting out at the fat Louis is blatantly insulting Gary while he sits right there listening in.

“Lou babe you’re on speaker in Gary’s office.” Harry says gently and they all heard the breath intake and Zayn has a suspicion if he could see the older boy now his jaw would be on the floor.

“Thanks for the warning.” Louis’ voice came through quietly after a moment, and honestly Zayn should not find this as funny as he does.

“Well Louis now that the insults have stopped why don’t you tell us how this picture got out?” Gary said calmly.

“I hope you aren’t insinuating I leaked the bloody picture because I can tell you right now I had nothing to do with it, I thought the photo was deleted years ago when both me and Harry deleted our original Facebook accounts.” Louis told them, sass coming through his tone of voice.

“Well you are the only one who seems likely to have leaked the photo since it is almost impossible to have being some fan since like you said the image was deleted years ago along with Harry’s Facebook, but you could have easily saved it and decided to leak it right now. I mean we all know you want all this secrets to stop; you’ve wanted your relationship with Harry to be out in the open ever since the x factor and this gives you the perfect opportunity.” Gary snips back with an angry bite to his voice.

“I’m sorry but you’ve got me all wrong. The only reason I want our relationship to be out is because I want you to stop causing so much grief to Harry, you make him miserable about it every second of the bloody day by making him go on fake relationships and try to get him to enter a fake relationship with a beard just to keep the media happy. You really think I’d purposely leak a picture of us online knowing how much trouble Harry would be in with you because of it? Last time you decided to take action because we were accidently pictured together Harry ended up on my doorstep and cried for over an hour straight, you really think I’m that desperate to out our relationship that I’d do something like this? You seriously are dumber than I thought.” Louis’ voice was cold as he spoke and both Harry and Zayn knew management had pushed his buttons.

“How else do you explain the picture then?” Gary asked, not backing down from his argument.

“You tell me love, I honestly didn’t know anything about it until a mate of mine text me it this morning asking how I knew Harry Styles.” Was Louis’ answer and Zayn felt like he’d be sat looking bored and picking his finger nails if he were here right now.

“Look it’s not even that bad of a picture, it’s not like they’re kissing on it or something, I’ve posted for pictures with Harry and the lads before in similar positions and it looks perfectly fine and friendly.” Zayn butted in, tired of the back and for business and knew Harry wouldn’t intervene.

“But it’s not just this photo, it’s set a spark running though the fandom. People have seen the image and are putting pieces together, they’re realising that it was Louis who was seen leaving the bar earlier this month with Harry, they’re realising that Louis was sat behind him during the VMAs, that Louis was with Harry when he went to see Tom Daley do his dive. They are realising that Louis has being to several events with Harry this year and they want to know why he wasn’t seen at all during 2011 and Harry’s journey through x factor if they’ve known each other for so long.” Gary told them, Harry pulled his lip through his teeth and there was no reply from Louis.

“Ever thought that this was your own stupid fault? If you hadn’t made their relationship a secret in the first place none of this would have happened, seriously you can’t keep something this big a secret forever, honestly I’d say your just lucky it hasn’t come out sooner or a more obvious picture has come out if I’m being completely honest.” Zayn spoke up for them, the other clearly deciding that not replying was best.

“How many times do we have to tell you that hiding their relationship is in the bands best interest? And now this picture has being leaked and people have started asking questions and we don’t have any answers.” Gary snapped and Harry started chewing on his lip some more.

“You don’t need answers; honestly no interviewer is going to be interested in some guy that’s showed up in a few pictures with Harry. And the fans might be curious to know who he is, but they are about every single person we get a photo with and we never give them answers. Your just worried and paranoid because it is in fact Harry’s boyfriend and you don’t want that information getting out, yet from an outsiders point of view it probably just looks like an old friend of Harry’s, there not kissing in the photo, they aren’t holding hands, they’re not pressed together in a hug. Harry has never come across as gay in anything so fans will just think it’s some friend of his, now seriously you need to get a life because there was no point in this stupid meeting because no one cares about this silly little picture and it hasn’t caused any trouble whatsoever. Now thank you for wasting our time but we’ll be getting going now.” Zayn told them and with that stood up and left the meeting room with Harry hot on his heels.

“Thanks for that man, I never really know what to say to him.” Harry said as they entered the lift.  
“Don’t worry about it man, that’s what friends are for.” Zayn replied with a smile.

“Well we both really appreciate how you stand up for us, you and all the boys.” Louis told them through the phone and Zayn had momentarily forget Louis was still there until now.

“Honestly don’t worry about it, they treated you both like shit on so many occasions and they really shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it. We wouldn’t be very good friends if we just let it slip by, plus we all see how much happier Harry is when he’s with you Lou and vice versa; you two deserve to be happy because you’ve done nothing wrong, you shouldn’t be punished for falling in love with someone. We want to help so stop saying thank you all the time, all 3 of us know you’d do the same in return.” Zayn told them.

“Thanks man for everything, and I guess I should be off cause I don’t want to run over my phone bill and Zayn deserves his phone back, but Harry you free to Skype later?” Louis replied.

“Yeah sure babe, we’ve got a day off so just text me whenever you want to Skype and I’ll be free; but make sure you get your work done.” Harry replied with a smile.

“Yes will do mum.” Louis said causing Harry to roll his eyes with a fond look on his face.  
“I’ll see you tonight, love you.” He added on.

“Love you too babe.” Harry finished before the call was ended and Zayn was given his phone back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to update, college is really busy with exams coming up and deadlines for coursework etc so that's obviously being my priority, but this is the longest chapter I've ever wrote to try make up for it.
> 
> And I don't know anything abut Manchester Uni or its library, and the stuff I said about assignments is based of what my cousin has told me about Uni, but she's studying a health course so it's probably completely different to English but oh we'll :p


	14. Chapter Twelve, Night Out With Grimmy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things become weird for Louis thanks to the picture, and Harry decided to have a night out with Nick.

Since the photo of him and Harry had leaked last week Louis’ life had took abit of a weird turn. People he’d never even met before had come up and spoke to him directly, some asking if Harry was really what he came across like on TV, and a few girls tried slipping him there numbers with a wink and the line _"give this to Harry would you, thanks alot"_ Louis would always find these hilarious, but he'd nod solemnly until they were out of sight and then he'd just laugh and throw them in the bin.

It wasn't just around the University Louis was feeling the affects of the leaked picture though, people who he hadn’t talked to in years were getting in touch with him, he'd had several people from his previous 6th form in Doncaster - which he'd attended for a year before moving to Holmes Chapal - where adding him on Facebook and asking if he had any cool stories about Harry, wanting to know how he'd come to know the curly haired popstar. He ignored every single one, not caring for people who were only interested in him because of Harry. 

Stan had being stuck to his side almost like glue as well, suddenly desperate to be his best friend once again. Talking constantly about how much he loved One Direction’s music and how much of a cool guy Harry seemed to be; and boy did it annoy Louis. Stan had never being shy on how much he disliked One Direction,  he'd called them all sorts of names and outright told Louis they were a bunch of shit singers selling singles from their looks, yet now Stan was very aware that Louis knew the band and it was like he'd magically become their biggest fan. Of course Louis knew it was only because he fancied getting to know some famous guys himself, Stan would proably get a tattoo of Harry's face if he though he had any chance of getting in with them. Stan had plagued Louis with questions when he'd met Louis for the first time after the photo had being leaked, extremely curious about how Louis knew Harry; Louis had always kept his answer vague, told Stan he'd gone into the bakery Harry use to work in quite a few times during college frees etc and one day Harry had invited him to a party and they'd developed a friendship of sorts; it wasn't like he was directly lying to Stan, he had developed a friendship with Harry, it had just later turned into a relationship. Stan had taken this answer fine before subtly hinted that his sister would maybe like an autograph and  free concert tickets, but Louis ignored both of these; it wasn't like Stan's sister had done anything to him but he wasn't keen on Stan anymore and wasn't about to persuade his boyfriend to give free tickets to some lads sister who had always being rude about One Direction in the past.

It wasn’t just noticeable in people he knew though either, someone in the fandom had caught onto a rumour that the lad in the new Harry picture was called Louis Tomlinson and he’d gained 100s of twitter followers over night when they realised his icon image was the same guy from the photo; and now a week later he had close to 600k followers, and when Louis mentioned El in a tweet a few days she had gained a good few hundred followers as well, bringing her count up to around 200k. He’d also gained followers on his tumblr since he'd never being shy and had his own face as that icon as well, a few of the people he regularly talked to had mentioned Harry, but not as much as people in real life, and he'd had a few people invading his askbox and asking for Harry details and contacts, of course Louis deleted these as well.

There was a problem with his new found ‘fame’ and ‘popularity’ of course; rumours were constantly being made and spread across twitter and tumblr, everyone now believing the pair were best buds from school that had being drawn apart due to Harry’s fame but were slowly rekindling their friendship. But this caused problems because some fans had nothing to do with their lives but scroll through the 1k people Harry followed and realised that Louis was not one of these people, yet Harry was on Louis' follow list; they started questioning things and they had wanted answers, which honestly they weren't going to be getting anytime soon.

And somehow 2 more photos from when they were younger had leaked as well, one of the pair at some party they’d gone to just before Harry had headed down to London for the xfactor live shows, they were both drunk when the photo was taken as they'd secretly being celebrating Harry getting through to the live shows; Harry had his arm throw around Louis’ shoulders and Louis had his tongue stuck out and was pointing his finger at Harry – the finger that often came out when he was drunk. The other photo was around week 3 of the live shows and Louis had being in London along with Anne - just like every other week - and had gone back stage to see Harry; Anne had made them pose for a picture with Louis holding up a sign that read _‘Vote One Direction into the direction of the final’_ in his scrawny writing.

Of course management had being furious at first when these photos leaked as well, and everyone was extremely confused on just how they got out when they only seemed to exist on cameras or phones or deleted social network accounts. But management had cooled down when they began noticing that all the fans were jumping on board to Harry’s new found friendship with a lad from ‘school’ and they wanted Harry to confirm it, wanted him to talk about the friendship, but Harry point blank refused, said there was no way in hell he would ever do that, he wasn't going to just go out a lie to the fans like that, plus he felt it wasn't fair on Louis to pretend that their relationship was anything less than what it really was. They'd also asked Harry to follow Louis’ on twitter – hypocrites since they’d originally told Harry he wasn’t allowed to follow Louis on twitter – but once again Harry had said no because this would look strange, he said it would cause even more questions and suspicions about why he'd only just started following his 'childhood friend'

But the problem that seemed to be focused on the most was that a select amount of fans – around 100 or so – had decided that he and Harry would make a cute couple. Harry was always getting gay rumours started by the fans who seemed to love the idea of him being with some guy - which should prove to Modest! that Harry coming out would definitely not be a bad thing- and they linked him to his fellow band mates as well as the likes of Nick Grimshaw and Ed Sheeran in the past, and now a few fans had decided that they should be together, started calling them ‘Larry Stylinson’ and editing pictures the few pictures of them (Louis was sure he'd seen a few Larry Support account and blogs on twitter and tumblr as well) management weren’t keen on this but they decided that it was out shadowed by all the positives the new found  ‘friendship’ had brought to the fandom, Louis had just scoffed and was secretly tempted to write down the twitter accounts and blogs of every single Larry shipper that he'd come across so he could personally send them a message or tweet in 10 years time when Harry is finally free of his management and contract and they can tell them that they are in fact together, that Larry is real and always has. Of course he doesn’t take down the names.

Throughout the course of the week Modest! had got in contact with him, usually they had Harry on the line as well, but sometimes it was Louis alone as they tried to get them both to agree with meeting up at some club in London over the weekend, apparently the fans wanted to see more of their ‘friendship’ so now they were allowed to be seen in public together if they were pretended to be friends and didn't act remotely couple like in anyway. Both of them kept declining of course, Louis with the excuse of Uni and Harry with an excuse of just being busy in general.  The thought of going to a club together where they'd have to sit and pretend to be friends while girls constantly came over in a hope of getting Harry's attention while Louis was powerless to say _"back off he's mine"_ made them both feel sick and besides if they were forced to pretend to be just friends then they'd both probably end up just drinking to try and feel better, and they both got a lot more touchy feely when they were drunk, and the club would have music and dancing which would be just too much and they'd both probably do something they'd regret and cause yet another bust up with management.

So instead of spending his day travelling down to London like management had wanted he'd instead spent the morning in bed, then his afternoon skyping Harry and was now watching The Hunger Games with Eleanor since they’d never managed to get to see it in cinemas when it had being out. The weather outside was cold now as it turned into winter and on Wednesday their heating had broke, so until the repair man could get out to fix it their apartment got really cold on a night time, the pair had wrapped up in pyjamas and woolly jumpers, El had opted to wear Louis' since they were bigger and wrapped her up nicely to keep her warmer than her own pyjamas, while Louis snuggled in Harry's jumpers and checked pants, they were large and smelt like Harry which comforted him and made him smile; they'd also dragged El's duvet from her bedroom - because i'm not getting under your's Louis it's probably still infested with yours and Harry's sex - and wrapped up together underneath it on the sofa.

It was in the middle of the scene where Katniss decided to shoot the apple to get the judges attention when the doorbell rang, making both of them groan in annoyance as Eleanor paused the movie and Louis got up to answer the door, wrapping himself in the small blanket that hung over the back of the arm chair and grabbing his keys from the key rack so he could open the door, wondering who the hell it would be at this time on a Saturday night.

“Stan?” it came out as a question when he spotted the lad stood at his door, he didn’t even know the lad knew where he lived let alone why on earth he was stood at his door instead of at some party getting drunk.

 “Hey man, thought I’d stop by see what you were up to.” He replied, pushing past Louis without being invited in and heading to the living room where Louis heard El let out a _Stan_ as he closed and locked the door before following him though; he was always cautious about the door and couldn’t rest if it wasn’t locked, he thinks he got it from his mum who’d being like that ever since they were robbed back when he was 12.

“Well me and El are just watching a movie.” Louis told him with a roll of his eyes as he perched himself on the arm of the sofa.

“Oh right, didn’t know if I’d be disturbing a party or a get together with some of your other mates.” Stan replied giving a quick glance around the room and immediately Louis knows why Stan is here, he'd being hoping that Harry had decided to drop down to see Louis and that he'd catch the popstar in Louis' apartment, sadly he was a few weeks too late.

“Harry isn’t here mate, he doesn’t really go out of his way to visit us on a regular bases since you know he’s got the schedule of a pop star, we only see him if we are in London, we aren’t that close.” Eleanor replied and she must have realised why Stan was stood in their living room too and was now jumping in so Louis wouldn’t have to say anything or lie about his relationship with Harry. Over the past 2 and half years or so Louis, Harry, the other 3 members and El had become crafty in the way they denied the relationship without actually having to deny it.

In interviews Harry was normally asked ‘Do you have a girlfriend?’ or something similar but with the word girl always being the key ingredient; because when asked if he had a girlfriend and he said no, officially he wasn’t actually lying because yes he had a boyfriend but no he didn’t have a girlfriend; and when asked to describe the perfect girl or date he’d reply with words such as someone which weren’t gender specific which meant he wasn’t officially lying. The boys had just become accustomed to this way and it had now become a natural thing for them to talk similar ways and avoid directly saying flat out that Harry was actually single if a question on Harry’s love life was brought up to them.

And he didn’t know how but in the year that Eleanor had known about him and Harry she had also become accustomed to it, being able to deny Harry was dating a girl but not actually dating someone, like how when they’d realised that Eleanor had also being seen out with Harry just like Louis some fans had asked her if she was dating Harry via twitter, and her answer had being _‘Harry Styles is not dating me and I’m not dating Harry Styles’_ which told the public that she wasn’t dating Harry Styles but it didn’t tell them that Harry was single. And she’d just done it right now with Stan, used the word we instead of Louis when saying they weren’t close, and Harry and Eleanor weren’t really close, he thinks Harry might have her number in case of an emergency and he can’t get through to Louis, but that’s about it so when El uses the word we it could very well be because she's referring to herself and Harry rather than Louis and Harry.

 “Oh you are mates with Harry now?” Stan said with a snarky tone and an eyebrow raise.

“No mate, just told you that haven’t I? Only met him once when I was in London with Louis and we bumped into him, honestly do you ever listen?” Eleanor replied, and Louis really wanted to high five her right there. Louis knew Eleanor had never being a fan of Stan and he recent events made him realise why, and El had especially shown her distaste when Stan had begun sticking to them like glue all week because of Harry. El wasn’t an outspoken kind of girl, didn’t shy away from things and wasn’t afraid to be confident and speak her mind – in many ways she was like a female version of Louis himself – and therefore was clearly not willing to put up with his crap any longer. Louis knew she’d only done it before because Stan was his mate, but now Louis wasn’t so keen on Stan himself so El didn’t hold back.

“You know I think I’m going to go, you two were clearly in the middle of something and I feel like I’ve disturbed, I’ll see you later and nice place you’ve got.” Stan replied, completely ignoring Eleanor as he looked in Louis’ direction to say his goodbye before heading down the hallway, ready to leave when another knock sounded at the door.

“You didn’t order Pizza or something did you El?” Louis shouted back as he grabbed the keys, to open the door for Stan and see who was at the door, he heard El shout back a no.

“I’ve got a delivery for a Mr Tomlinson?” the man stood at the door asked and Louis raised his hand, wondering why he was getting a package this late.

“That’s me.” He replied, and the man held out one of those electronic pads for him to sign. Once he’d done so – with Stan stood awkwardly beside him waiting to leave the apartment – the man put it back in his bag and reached to the side to grab the package, pulling up and absolutely stunning bouquet of flowers that Louis gasped at.

There were different colours of roses, lilies and orchids ranged beautifully along with ribbons and plastic hearts and it was honestly one of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen in his entire life.

“Wow.” Louis said as he took it off the delivery man who just give him a weak smile and then headed down the corridor.

“Someone’s being splashing out.” Stan said with a snarky tone before following the delivery man.

“Who was at the door Lou?” El asked coming down the hallway and also gasping when she saw the bouquet of flowers.

“They’re beautiful Louis’; Harry’s really gone all out this time.” Eleanor said as she leaned round him to lock the door since he was still holding the flowers.

“I know, I’m not sure what they’re for but I’ve never seen something so beautiful, apart from Harry, in my entire life.” Louis replied as the pair began making there way down the corridor.

“Aw that’s so cute; I’ll go get you a vase of water so you can put them down.” El told him with a smile and headed into the kitchen, coming back a minute later with a glass vase full of water and putting it on their small table by the window for Louis rearrange the flowers in.

Once he was done and both him and El had admired them from the sofa he sent Harry another text – since the younger lad had text him letting him know he going out – before settling down to watch the movie once again.

-

Harry loved a relaxing bath from time to time, he loved filling the tub up with steaming hot water and unscented bubble bath, lighting vanilla tobacco candles all around the edge to light up the bathroom and fill it with a nice, soft relaxing scent. He also loved when there was another wet, naked male sharing his bath, relaxing against his chest; but it was still relaxing on his own and he felt he needed to relax for a while, so he stripped down and slid into the hot soapy water. Plugging in his earbuds, turning on the playlist he'd named bath time and consisted of a list of what he deemed the most relaxing songs of all time. Closing his eyes as the first cords of Coldplay began and feeling his body immediately relax. His relaxation lasted about 10 songs before his eyes were snapping open thanks to someone pinching his nose and pulling on his earphones.

“Heya babe.” 

“Nick what the fuck, you can’t just come barging in here.” Harry practically yelled, sitting up in the bathtub to glare at his friend, beginning to regret giving him a copy of his key since the older lad often had a tendency to barge in at the most awkward moments, Harry felt lucky he'd never turned up when him and Louis were having sex; although to be honest he tended to stay away from Harry when Louis was in London since his boyfriend wasn't so keen on his quirky friend.

“Relax man, it's not like I haven’t seen it all before; you have a habit of walking around naked remember. Nick exclaimed, sitting down on the toilet seat with a grin on his face while Harry just rolled his eyes.

"What you doing here Nick, i'm trying to have a relaxing night." Harry asked his friend who smiled at him and crossed his legs.

"We are going out of course sweetcheeks." he replied with the same grin.

“Who said?” Harry asks his older friend.

“Me of course, we haven’t had a good night out in weeks since you've being busy with the boys promoting the new album, and then one weekend you fucked off back to Manchester to shag your boyfriend; plus i'm very observant and know that you've being having a hard time with your management team and not being able to be as free as you like, so i though going out a getting drunk out of our minds would be good for you ya know. So why don't you stop being such a moody child and get your skinny little arse out of that bathtub before it gets all wrinkly and all the best clubs get too full." Nick told him, and when Harry sighed and nodded to show he was on board with Nick's plan the older boy smiled before finally leaving him alone in the bathroom once again.

35 minutes later and Harry was ready to go out, he’d decided on just a pair of black skinny jeans with a grey shirt and blue over shirt on since he guessed the place Nick was planning on taking him too was pretty casual since Nick was only wearing black skinny jeans and a black skin tight top.

 “Ready love?” Nick asked when Harry walked into the living room, he was laid across the sofa watching family guy and stuffing his face with some cheesy puffs that Harry recognised as the ones he'd bought only the other day for himself and Niall when they got round the movie night they'd being planning.

 “Yeah, let’s get going.” He replied as he pulled on his favourite pair of converse as well as his black pea coat while Nick turned off the TV and grabbed his pair of red vans – which he’d discarded when he’d laid down on the sofa – and grey pea coat before heading out, Harry locking door while Nick called them a cab.

“So love, you going to tell me exactly whats being happening thats resulted in me loosing my curly haired charmer, or am I going to have to just guess?” Nick asked as he lit a cigarette and then linked his arm through Harry's while they made a slow walk up the drive to the front gates where the taxi driver would be picking them up from.

Harry sighed, not really sure where to begin although he knew he'd be telling Nick everything. Harry loved Nick he really did, he was almost like his older brother in a weird way and Harry trusted Nick with his life and knew the quirky lad would never bare any of his secrets to anyone, even when he was piss drunk or if his job was on the line. Nick was the only one outside of his family, the boys and people working with the band that knew about his relationship with Louis. 

Nick had accidently found out about him and Louis when Harry had left Nick in his living room with his phone on the coffee table while he went to the bathroom,  Nick being the nosy bugar that he was had ended up searching his phone and coming across some photos of Harry and Louis as well as a few intimate text messages – which he told Harry he hadn’t read many because that felt like invading his privacy, although Harry wasn't really sure weather he believed this since Nick had never really cared about invading his privacy before, otherwise he wouldn't have being going through his phone. Nick had always being aware that Harry was gay, had asked him within the first week of knowing one another and Harry never denied, he also never told Nick about Louis.

With Nick finding the images Harry ended up just spilling everything, sitting and telling Nick everything about Louis, the secrets, the contracts, management and surprisingly the older bloke had sat and listened the entire time before giving him a hug and asking if he wanted to get pissed.  Ever since then Nick had being there for Harry and always listened to everything before making sure he got Harry’s mind off the topic and relaxed him even if it was just for a few hours. And yeah sure the lads were able to do this as well, but sometimes it was nice to talk to someone away from the band, someone who Harry knew didn’t have anything to hold over Harry. He knew none of the boys would ever blame him for anything, but if he went down then they did too, if he lost fans then so did the band, if he lost sales so did they. Yet if his career suffered then Nick's wouldn't, he'd still host the Radio 1 breakfast show every morning.

 “Just some shit with management trying to get me a fake girlfriend really, said I need to try clean up my act after having a few too many close calls with Louis. And of course when I refused they kicked off, telling me it was in my contract and it wasn’t until I threatened to quit that they backed off, but even now they are still trying to make it happen.” Harry told Nick as they sat on the wall outside his house. 

“Damn dude that’s messed up, someone needs to teach those dickheads a lesson. They trying to set you up with someone famous or just some random chick who comes across as a fan?” Nick asked as he took a drag of his cigarette and blowing it out and into the air around them, Harry resisting the urge to cough obnoxiously like he normally did just to annoy him. 

“Taylor fucking Swift is who, and they wanted her to think it was real and not fake for publicity. Like seriously, she’s dated every single guy to ever cross her path did they really think I'd want to join that list? Plus if she thought it was real she'd be bitter when I broke it off with her and when a guy breaks it off with her she writes fucking songs about them that make them come across as the bad guy, I mean I’m pretty sure I don’t want 20 million Taylor fans coming after me with pitchforks because I broke their princesses heart.”  Harry tells him, annoyance in his voice as he talks about her.

“They seriously wanted Taylor Swift? They’ll be trying to show that you can commit and not just date around like some slut yet they are setting you up with the biggest one yet. And how are you supposed to pretend it’s a real relationship? Surely she’d get suspicions after you don’t kiss her or shag her.” Nick replies with a chuckle.

“Exactly, and trust me these lips are only touching Louis’ lips, it took me forever to finally get them to feel clean again after the last chick they set me up with who kissed me spontaneously, there’s no way im going anywhere near Taylor’s lips; they’d be full of slimy lip-gloss.” Harry told Nick, pretending to be sick at the last part which made his friend laugh. 

“Honestly you need to make sure you never sign another contract with your team ever again man, all they ever seem to do is make you depressed. They need to start living in the 21st century as well, I mean all this bullshit about your sexuality affecting your career, seriously everyone is fully aware that I am gay and everyone still fucking loves me because I’m just that awesome, they need to realise your fans will still love you just as much as well. I mean you already get people wanting you to be fucking either me, Ed or one of the lads, that's clearly not hating you for being gay, and isn't their some big deal over Ziam too. They need to open their fucking eyes.” Nick told him as the taxi pulled up and before Harry could reply he was flicking the remainder of his fag onto the floor and climbing into the taxi, showing Harry the conversation was over and it was time to relax and let himself go for a while. 

-

 They ended up at some small, out of sight club in the middle of London that Nick had being to a few times and said was a good place to relax and have a good time without really worrying about on lookers because the place wasn't that well know and the people that tended to go to the club were already abit high profile and didn't care about a curly haired popstar.

When the pair entered they were waved over by some people that Nick already knew, this didn't surprise Harry since Nick more often than not knew at least one person wherever he went since he had such a vibrant personality that made it easy for him to bond with people so quickly. Nick introduced Harry to everyone before ordering them both double vodka's and cokes before striking up a conversation that can also involve Harry, and he feels glad that Nick's friends seems just as friendly as the older boy so he feels comfortable and relaxed almost immediately.

It's after his 3rd double vodka and coke that Harry finally starts to feel a buzz, his mind going a little fuzzy and he’s feeling much more relaxed. Nick had drank probably twice as much as Harry, drinking an arrangement of different drinks making him seem much more out of it than Harry, his arm was draped across Harry’s shoulders and he was pressed tightly against his side as he rambled on about some story from their past outings that he thought deemed funny and interesting enough to share, although it probably would have being neither of these things if they’d being sober. 

Once the story is over Nick decides it’s time for another fag and Harry decides he wants another drink, so Nick heads outside and Harry heads to the bar ordering another two vodka and cokes. The place was slightly busier than when the pair had entered a couple of hours ago, a lot more girls had made there way in and Harry had noticed a few winks and flirty looks being sent his way but he’d ignored them all in favour of cuddling up beside one of his best friends while texting his boyfriend occasionally about the flowers he’d sent over and then about the hunger games which his boyfriend seemed to be watching for the first time since Harry had being away in Australia while it was out and he'd just not seen it with El for some reason or another.

As Harry waited for the drinks he spotted a few girls from the corner of his eye giggling and pointing his way, before the girl who seemed most confident out of them all adjusted her dress and hair as she started making her way over to him, Harry rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to groan in annoyance because _every fucking time.  
_

“I know you.” She said matter of factly when she reached him with a smile on her face. Her voice had a strong Geordie accent which he recognised from the times he’d watched Geordie Shore – only when there was nothing else on, he wasn't addicted to that show he swears – and he knew immediately she was from Newcastle. Plus when Harry thought about it she actually looked like she could be on the show with the mass amount of makeup she was wearing, as well as the tight and very short dress that left not much to the imagination and heels that Harry was certain could not be comfortable since they were almost bigger than his head. 

“Is that so love, cause I don’t think I recognise you? Have we met?” Harry said without giving her much of a glance and rather keeping himself interested in waiting for the drinks. She didn’t seem bothered or affected by this, just give him a really flirtatious smile and Harry wanted to laugh, if only she know that if he was single then it’d be the barman he’d most likely be trying to shack up with, not her. 

“You are in that famous boy band right? I’m a huge fan of that song you sing about living young.” She told him while placing her hand on his upper arm and Harry seriously wanted the bar man to fucking hurry up. 

“That’s right babe.” He told her and before she could say anything else he was engulfed by the smell of lingering tobacco and a strong arm was across his shoulders. 

“You alright love, chatting up my man are we?” Nick asked the girl, his words only slightly slurred as he did so.

“I’m not familiar with you but I’m currently having a conversation with Harry so why don’t you go find some pretty little dick to hang off else where.” She told him with a glare that probably would have sent most lads scurrying away, luckily Nick wasn’t most guys and he wasn't scared of some snotty girl in a bar. 

“I think you need to go find your pretty little dick somewhere else as well babe because this is lad’s night out and my mate here really does not look interested. You’ve got abit to much boob for his liking; he’s always being a arse kind of guy.” Nick told her with a smug smile as the he grabbed one of the drinks the barman had finally handed over before steering Harry back over to their table, leaving the Geordie lass alone with a shocked expression that showed she wasn’t use to being talked to like that or being turned down either. Once they were back at the table Nick began laughing hysterically which prompted Harry into laughing as well, if only the girl had really known what Nick meant when he said he was an arse kind of man.

2 more drinks down for both of them and Nick had suggested they have a dance. The girl and her friends who had attempted to chat Harry up were still stood by the bar and kept sending them annoyed looks which prompted Harry to agree to Nick’s suggestion. So now they were currently dancing together in the middle of the dance floor to some typical club song without a care in the world, he knew that maybe he should be worried about anyone watching that would tip management to have another flip out about his sexuality, but he had drank 5 double vodka and cokes which made his mind behave differently and he wasn't so worried about anything, including the fact he was currently grinding in the middle of the dance floor with his best mate. Plus he knew that the wall would be coming soon anyway, that he was close to the crash and burn when the alcohol stopped making him a loose, almost free spirit and turned him into an emotional wreck which would mean Nick would need to sober up quickly and then attempt to get him home before he either sat and cried, poured his soul to Nick or tried to phone Louis and cry down the phone about how much he missed him and loved him. Harry liked none of these so he hoped that Nick would be able to sober up quickly tonight, but right now he just hoped to have a good time and that’s what he was currently having so he continued.

 The crash and burn didn’t come as soon as Harry had suspected, but actually half an hour later when a slower song had come on which Harry and Nick weren’t too keen on dancing to and Harry had let the words _‘I miss Louis’_ slip out of his mouth when he placed his head against Nick's shoulder to rest. Nick had immediately straightened himself up slightly before helping Harry back over to their previous table where he sat Harry down and asked the others to make sure he was okay before disappearing into the crowd once again, most likely to get a few glasses of water to help with his sobering up.

Harry really appreciated that about Nick as well, not only was he good at listening to Harry’s problems and trying to take Harry’s mind of it, but he also made sure Harry got home in one piece and didn’t get in any trouble, he wouldn’t complain if Harry asked to leave early he’d just leave straight away, he would sober himself up so he could take care of Harry and Harry was so grateful for it. Before he’d met Nick, if he ever went out without one of the boys then he’d often find himself waking up without knowing exactly what had happened and being thankful he hadn't drank so much he'd ended up in someone else's bed; although he knew subconsciously that no matter what state he was in then he'd never ever cheat on Louis, but since meeting Nick he’d never had that problem. If the boys didn’t feel like going out he’d always have Nick because Nick never said no to going out and so Harry no longer had to head off on his own and wake up with a dark spot in his memory.

Nick returned a couple of minutes later looking more refreshed and definitely more sober than Harry who he picked up and held against his side for support as he said his goodbye to everyone else sat the table – Harry mumbling out goodbyes as well in his drunken state – before manoeuvring around the crowd towards the exit. As per usual the paparazzi had managed to figure out which club Harry Styles was at and they were bombarded with flashes and shouts as they left. Nick kept calm in the situation, keeping close to Harry’s side to keep him steady while telling him jokes to make him laugh so the paps didn’t realise what a state he was in while they headed for the taxi. 

The taxi was close by and Nick was quickly getting Harry into the back and following in himself as he told the driver and address; Harry was too focused on trying not to cry to listen to weather they were heading back to his place or Nick’s. Harry buckled his seatbelt before closing his eyes to try and stop any tears from falling; he was unsuccessful. 

“Hey Haz what’s wrong?” Nick was asking immediately, his hand coming to rest on Harry’s shoulder as a source of comfort. 

“I don’t even know.” Harry stutted out as the tears continued to fall, he honestly had no clue why he was suddenly overcome with the urge to cry. Tonight had being the first time in a long time that he’d had the chance to relax and enjoy himself without Louis, yet here he was as the night came to an end crying his freaking eyes and he didn’t even know why. He felt Nick’s arm come around his shoulders and he turned his face into Nick’s neck to hide it from view in case the taxi driver or any lurking paps tried to get a photo of him having a break down.

“Shhhh love, we don’t want your beautiful face to be all red and blotchy now do we, so why don’t you try calm yourself down and tell Nick what’s got you so wound up.” Nick whispered into his ear, bringing his fingers up to Harry’s curls to try comfort but this only made Harry hyperaware of the fact it wasn’t Louis’ fingers wrapped in his curls which just made him cry harder. 

“Hey Haz come on, don’t cry, you’ve had such a good night you don’t want to ruin it. Now why don’t you tell me why you’re so upset?” Nick spoke calmly to him, he’d removed his hands from his hair like he was aware that’s what had caused Harry to cry some more. 

“I just miss Louis like all the time.” Harry managed to choke out between his sobs and he heard Nick sigh as his arm tightened around Harry. 

“I know you do love, and I know that it really does suck how badly your management team treat you. But you’ve got to remember that everyone is trying to get you out of this, you told me yourself that the boys have a plan and are trying as hard as they can to help you guys. And you’ve also just got to remember how much Louis loves and adores you; you honestly mean the world to him kid and nothing is ever going to change that.  No matter what happens in the future and no matter what Modest try to force onto you, Louis will always be there waiting with open arms for you and that will never change.

I know it’s hard not being able to go anywhere with him at the moment, that you feel like you can’t enjoy yourself without Louis by your side but that’s not true. He’ll be wanting you to have fun, right now he’s in Manchester studying to become an English teacher or author; and just imagine what it’ll be like in just over a year when he steps up to graduate with his English degree; how proud you’ll feel of him just like he feels whenever he sees you performing live or on TV, or doing interviews. You’ll realise then that sometimes you needed to be away from one another to both be able to fulfil your dreams, but you’ve got the rest of your lives to be together and right now it just a small fraction in that, but you'll always come back to one another. 

One day you will be able to walk down a street with him on your arm and proudly tell the world that he belongs to you, and yeah right now that might seem like a long way off but don’t worry it really isn’t. And I know you miss him like crazy, and he’ll be missing you like crazy too, because that’s perfectly normal when you’re in love with someone. So you honestly have nothing to worry yourself about love because we both know that Louis will always be there whenever you need him, no matter what. So dry off those tears and let’s get you home because honestly it’s being a long night and we both need some sleep.” Nick finished, and he heard Harry sniffle a few times.

"Here Haz, why don't you put your head on my lap and close your eyes, it might help you calm down." Nick said after a few minutes when Harry had finally stopped crying, the younger boy nodded his head and unbuckled his seatbelt so he could lay across the seat with his head in Nick's lap; Harry bringing his arm up to rub against Harry's arm, knowing his hair was a no go zone at this moment. Both boys closing their eyes to try relax when they were forced forward as the taxi came to a sudden stop and the sound of brakes and something crashing together sounded out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhh sorry for the cliff hanger, i couldn't help myself :)
> 
> and introduction to my favourite radio host :) can you tell from this chapter how insanely in love i am with Nick? I hope not :p
> 
> anyway sorry for the late update, it's exam season at college which sucks balls cause it means i'm not getting as much time to write as i'd like. but my last exam is on the 13th and then im free till like october if i get into the Uni i want to go to, so more writting time for me :D


	15. Chapter Thirteen, Welcome to The Royal London Hospital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Contuation from previous chapter! what happens next...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a few new POVs in this chapter rather than just the standard Louis & Harry :)

Nick feels like he might just throw up any minute, the knot in his stomach growing as each second passes. The hospital was dead, almost like it was trying to fit in with his mood as he waited for any news; he’d being here for over 2hrs, he'd had his check up and being cleared and discharged without any injuries, and without any news.

 He could hear the clock ticking from across the room, torturing him with how slow it seemed to be turning; the scuffle coming from Niall would hit his ear every now and then as the Irish boy moved and made sure his butt didn't cramp due to being sat for so long in the hard, plastic hospital chairs. Nick had called up all the boys after he’d being discharged, felt like he ought to be the one to tell them the news of the crash rather than read it or watch about it in the morning since the media caught on pretty fast in these situations - and when Nick had took a fag break he'd seen lurking paparazzi. Nick hadn't actually being expecting any of the boys to turn up, or if they did then only one. But 20 minutes after he'd made the phone calls they'd arrived at the hospital to see how Harry was.

Nick leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to relax and stop the churning in his stomach, he heard the sound of the waiting room doors opened and looked to his right to see Louis who walked through the doors; Nick didn’t have his number so he hadn’t being able to contact him, and guessed one of the other 3 had which Nick thought was best since Louis was probably the first person Harry would want to see, well Louis and his mum.

Louis was wearing pyjama bottoms and a thick woollen jumper - that Nick was sure he’d seen Harry wear previously - and Nick could only presume Louis had being in bed when he’d got the news and hadn’t even bothered to get changed before coming down. His hair was all over the place and his eyes were puffy and rimmed with red that was an indication he’d being crying; when he spotted them he immediately looked to Zayn and Nick knew that out of Harry’s band mates Zayn was the one Louis got on the best with since they were closest in age and pretty similar.

“We haven’t heard anything that I didn’t tell you on the phone Lou.” Zayn said quietly, looking sadly over at Louis who looked like he was about to start crying once again; but instead he just nodded his head before walking over to sit on the empty seat beside Zayn, curling up into a ball, staring blankly at the wall ahead.

Nick wasn’t sure if he should say anything to Louis since it had being him with Harry when the crash happened; but the pair barely interacted, the few times they’d met since Nick had befriended Harry had being awkward and uncomfortable, Nick was convinced the younger boy hated him but when he’d brought it up, Harry he’d just laughed and said it was nonsense, that Louis didn't hate him he just didn't know him. So instead of speaking up he just sat quietly and waited for news; looking up at the doors when another man entered, but Nick didn't recognise him and looked away.

\- 

Nick watched nurses scurry past, but none stopped to delivery any news, and by the time the next hour ticked around Anne, Gemma and Robin had joined them in the waiting room without any news. The sun was beginning to rise once again since they'd being waiting so long; Nick had managed to chew down his nails so they were now practically stubs, and his leg was jiggling up and down even more due to the amount of coffee he’d consumed to make sure he stayed awake for any possible news.

Eventually at 7:35am, a nurse walked in and asked for Harry Styles family; both Louis and Anne stood up immediately, they were holding hands and had being sat together since she’d arrived; and about 40 minutes ago they’d disappeared for a while and when they’d returned their eyes had being redder than before and Nick guessed they’d being crying.

 “We are his family, please tell us what is happening, we’ve being waiting long enough.” Robin spoke on behalf of them, as they all looked up to the nurse with nerves, worried about the news she had.

“The doctors have being trying their hardest to check Harry over and see if he has any major injuries, however Harry has not yet managed to wake up so this has being hard for us. There is a possibility that Harry will suffer from head or brain injuries that we have being unable to check for yet since we need Harry awake for this, and without scans we are unable to determine how hard Harry hit his head. We are currently led to believe that Harry hit his head on the seat in front of him because he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt when the crash happened, which could mean he may suffer a number of different head trauma, however from the check ups we have already undertaken while he’s being unconscious we haven’t found any signs of injuries that would make us worried or concerned, and at this stage in the process we think that everything should be perfectly fine when Harry finally wakes up, that the alcohol he consumed before the accident is the reason he hasn’t woken up yet because the alcohol had taken over his body, but we felt that we should warn you of any possible news that we may find later. But now you are able to go and see him if you’d like although he is still asleep, if you follow this corridor and take a left you’ll find him in a private room at the end, we would like to say no more than three visitors at the current moment, it will increase when he finally wakes up but we don't want him to be too crowded when he wakes up, this may make him feel overwhelmed which wouldn't really help the situation.” And with that she left them all in the waiting room, probably ready to deliver some more news to someone else.

Nick felt the knot in his stomach tighten when he noticed the look of grief that washed over Louis and Anne’s face at the news, this was all his fault; he’d told Harry lay across his lap to try help him calm down, Harry had taken off his seatbelt in order to do this, and was now unconscious in a hospital bed with possible unknown head injuries.

“It’s all my fault.” Nick whispered more to himself than anyone, but the room had fallen deadly silent when the nurse had left so they all heard him, their heads whipping around to stare in his direction.

“What did you just say?” Louis asked his voice cold and his eyes looked lifeless making Nick gulp.

 “I let him take his fucking seatbelt off so it’s my entire fucking fault. He was drunk and had hit that wall he always hits, the one where he turns into an emotional wreck, so we were in the back of the taxi heading home and he just began crying, saying he was missing you, and when I finally got him to stop crying I told him to put his head in my lap and try close his eyes in a hope to relax him. He took off his fucking seatbelt to do so, then we crashed not a minute later and now he’s hit his head and who knows what’s going to happen when he wakes up.” Nick told them, his voice getting higher as he continued speaking; the feeling in his stomach getting worse and worse and he just wanted to punch something for letting himself be so stupid and not making sure Harry kept his seatbelt on at all times like he knows he should have.

Suddenly Louis was pouncing at him, Nick jumped out of his seat and back into the cold hard wall behind him as Robin, Zayn and the man Nick didn't know all grabbed him to make sure Louis didn’t actually touch Nick; he looked at him with a look of anger, as well as fear and sadness mixed in and Nick really didn’t know what to make of it as Louis thrashed around in the arms of the man Nick still didn’t know, Zayn and Robin had let their grips subside probably so they didn't get hit.

“LET ME GO, I’M GOING TO KILL YOU. THIS IS ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT, I’VE TOLD HIM SO MANY TIMES THAT YOU CAN’T BE TRUSTED, THAT HE SHOULDN’T LISTEN TO YOU; AND NOW HERE HE IS IN HOSPITAL WITH A HEAD INJURY BECAUSE HE LISTENED TO A STUPID PRICK LIKE YOU, WHAT IF HE WAKES UP AND DOESN’T REMEMBER ANYTHING EH? IT’LL ALL BE YOUR FAULT BECAUSE YOU HAD HIM LAY ACROSS YOUR LAP INSTEAD OF STAY SAFE INSIDE A SEATBLET, HOW WILL YOU FEEL IF HE CAN’T REMEMBER A SINGLE THING ABOUT HIS LIFE ALL BECAUSE YOU COULDN’T RESIT HAVING HARRY STYLES IN YOUR LAP BECAUSE YOU FANCY HIM LIKE SOME CREEPY STALKER GUY!” Louis yelled, there were tears streaming down his face now, but he was still fighting the grip of the man. Nick couldn’t help it as he looked straight on at Louis frozen in place. To be honest Nick felt like he wouldn’t care right now if Louis were to punch him, he felt like he deserved it, felt it was completely his fault; he should have made sure Harry kept his seatbelt on, waited until they’d got back home to get him to lie down and rest. 

“Come on Louis, we will go cool off for five minutes. Let Gemma and Anne go see Harry and then we’ll go once you’ve calmed down because you don't want Harry to see you like this.” The man said, before walking out the waiting room with a still thrashing and screaming Louis in his arms and Nick didn't understand how he had the strength to do so.

Anne had her lip through her teeth and looked like she might cry again at the sight of Louis screaming and crying, but Gemma stood up quickly and took her mums hand, leading her out the waiting room to go see Harry. An uncomfortable silence settled in the waiting as he just stood still against the wall he was currently pressed against, but his shoulders relaxed slightly and his heart race started to slowly slow down as everyone else took their previous seats once again. 

“None of us blame you, even Louis. He’s just upset and scared right now is all, and he needed to let it out.” Zayn spoke after what seemed like centuries, and Nick just nodded his head; because they might say they don’t blame him but he certainly blamed himself for what had happened.

-

Despite the sun shining, it was still rather cold outside since it was late autumn and the early hours of the morning. Louis was still struggling against Mark’s hold, but his shouting had finally stopped and he was now just sobbing in Mark's arms, tears running fast as he tried to escape the tight embrace. The nurses had all shot them both sympathetic looks as Mark had carried Louis through the hospital reception thinking it was for the best to get some air to calm Louis down, knew he needed to get him calm and let it all out before he saw Harry which could trigger it.

When Mark finally found a quiet bench away from the smokers hanging around near the entrance he sat them both down, keeping Louis close to his side holding onto him to make sure he didn’t try to run away. But now that Louis seemed to have cooled off from his anger towards Nick and was instead crying he seemed to be perfectly fine with Mark holding him as the tears fell from his eyes like waterfalls. Mark had never before seen his son cry so much, and it wasn’t like Louis was embarrassed to cry, he cried at any little thing and wasn’t ashamed to show it. 

Mark let Louis’ head rest on his shoulder as he rubbed his sons back for comfort; Jay had always being better at comforting the children when they were upset, Mark would wait until they were feeling better and then give them a treat; but he’d still learnt a few things along the way. So he rubbed up and down Louis’ back and whispered words of comfort in his ear, letting Louis just cry because he knew his son needed this, he needed to get it all out rather than bottle it all up. Louis had only let out a few broken sobs when he’d phoned Mark to ask him for a lift to London because he didn’t feel like he could drive himself, and then he’d only cried quietly on the car ride up not letting out full blown sobs, and he didn’t think he’d sobbed when he’d disappeared with Anne because knowing his son, he’d have tried to be strong for Anne rather than break down with her.

Eventually Louis’ sobs seemed to subside and turn into hiccups, by now Mark’s shoulder was soaked but he didn’t really care. Mark opened his mouth to speak to him, but Louis beat him to it.

“What if he doesn’t remember me dad?” he whispered, his voice barely heard it was that quite, cracking as he spoke, and Mark was pretty sure his heart broke a million times over for his son. That was why Louis was so upset, why he was so angry with Nick, he was scared that Harry would suffer memory damage and forget all about him.

“Oh Louis I’m sure that won’t happen.” Mark told him, his hand continuing to rub comfortingly up his son’s back to try and help him.

 “How do you know though? I was watching the movie The Vow the other week with El, and she suffered 5 year memory loss because she’d taken her seatbelt off at a stop sign and a car had gone into the back of there’s. It was based on true events dad and I’m just so scared that Harry’s going to wake up and not remember me. In the movie she never remembered him, they ended up getting divorced and having to rework on their relationship, and if Harry doesn’t remember me it’s going to be so much harder because we barely have any proof because we’ve had to stay hidden for so long, and management will try make sure he doesn’t remember because they hate us being together, and I’m just so scared dad.” Louis replied, the tears starting to fall once again not as heavy as last time but they were still falling, and Mark literally wanted to cry himself, watching his son fall apart like this was heartbreaking, and he knew nothing he said or done would ever be okay until Harry woke up, looked at Louis and recognised him.

“I know you are son, and I know that if I was in your position right now I’d be just as scared; but you can’t think like this, you need to just try thinking positive thoughts, thinking that Harry is going to wake up and he is going to remember every single detail of you and your relationship. We both know Harry, he is such a fighter Lou, and he won’t let a little thing like a car crash come between you two, you’ve being fighting for the past few years to be free, I don’t think Harry’s about to give up soon.” Mark told Louis, patting his back and was glad to see Louis’ tears start to subside once again.

“You really think he’ll be okay?” Louis asked when he’d finally quietened down once again.

 “I really do son, I honestly do.” Mark told Louis, pulling his son into his side for a hug and Louis immediately hugged him back before he began patting down Mark’s coat pockets.

 “What you doing?” Mark asked, a small chuckle leaving his lips at his sons strange behaviour.

 “The one time I could really use a stress reliever and you decide to leave your fags at home, honestly you can be useless sometimes.” Louis told him, before hugging him once again and Mark couldn't help but chuckled as he hugged his son back.

-

Anne was so glad to find that Harry wasn’t plugged into loads of machines like she saw on TV all the time, where you could hear the steady beat of his heart and the drip of the IV. He was just laid there in the hospital bed, no wires, no machines, just Harry looking like he was sleeping perfectly normal. The nurses had stripped him of his normal clothes he’d being wearing when he’d came in, and he was now dressed in one of the awful hospital gowns that always made your skin look extra pale, he had bags under his eyes, and slight redness which Anne guessed came from the crying he’d apparently being doing before the accident.

Anne sat on one of the seats beside Harry’s left side, taken hold of his hand which was cold and free of life making Anne shiver slightly and if it wasn’t for the steady rise and fall of Harry’s chest she’d probably have started crying as well. Gemma took the seat beside Anne, holding her other hand for comfort as they sat and watched Harry in silence.

About 15 minutes later the door opened, and they looked up to see Louis and Mark walk in, Louis eyes looked red raw and Anne knew immediately that he’d being crying hard; and he looked like he was about to start once again when he saw Harry laying motionless on the bed, and she gave him a sympathetic look when he took the seat on the opposite side of Harry and took his other hand kissing it over and over and whispering words into the skin that Anne couldn't make out. Mark motioned to speak to Gemma and she followed him out the room to see what he needed while Louis and Anne stayed behind to watching Harry, their eyes never leaving his face, hoping for some signs that he was finally waking up.

-

Over the course of the next hour everyone drops in too see Harry before heading to wherever they needed to be, the rest of the boys needed to get to a press conference that had being made so they could let everyone know about Harry and any current situations that needed to be handled, like cancelling events and figuring out when it was suitable to get Harry back to work, although they all knew it'd be a least a week. Nick hadn’t stayed long since he didn’t want to upset Louis anymore  than he already had, and he just felt guilt when he saw Harry anyway so he'd left pretty quickly. Robin had came in and stayed for about 10 minutes before leaving along with Mark and Gemma saying they needed to book hotel rooms, Louis had gave them his spare key to Harry’s house though, so they decided to head back the house and get everything sorted, make some phone calls and let family and friends knows everything, promising to bring some of Harry’s stuff back when they returned later in the day, just in case he had to stay in much longer than they wanted.  Anne and Louis had of course opted to stay, although no one had really being expecting otherwise.

Once they were alone, Anne also noticed just how tired Louis looked, that his eyes kept dropping and every time they did he’d jump up and blink rapidly like he was trying to make sure he stayed awake. Anne immediately felt sorry for the boy, she knew he won’t have had much sleep because he was woken up in the middle of the night and then drove for over 2 hours to London before they'd had to wait ages to finally see Harry, and all the crying must have tired him out immenselyas well.

 “Why don’t you try get some sleep sweetie, you look exhausted.” Anne said quietly when Louis’ eyes dropped once more and he began rapidly blinking.

 “It’s okay, I’m not sure I could anyway.” Louis replied, not letting his eyes leave Harry just like they hadn't since he'd first entered the room.

“Honestly love, it’ll do you the world of good to try and get some, I promise that if Harry so much as moves his head an inch I’ll wake up immediately.” Anne tried again, feeling like it was in his best interest to get some sleep, she was only looking out for him, he was like her second son.

“It’s fine.” Louis replied, but the next time his eyes began to droop, he let them, and was asleep within minutes, letting out small snores as he let his head slump down on his own shoulder, never letting his grip on Harry’s hand loosen which made Anne's heart swell slightly. Mark had told Gemma, who’d in turn told Anne exactly why Louis had got himself so worked up in the waiting room and he'd looked ready to murder Nick, and honestly she’d felt her own heart break as well; she just hoped and prayed that Harry’s memory was in full tact when he woke up because she doesn't think Louis would ever be able to recover if it wasn't, and she's not sure she would either.

Half an hour later, and Anne had read part of the trashy gossip magazine Gemma had bought her before throwing it to the end of the bed when she'd come across an article about latest marriage Harry had apparently ruined by sleeping with the mans wife, and so she was now sat texting a few people about Harry’s condition as well as texting Gemma back and for, Louis was still snoring quietly in his chair and Anne had let her grip on Harry loosen slightly when she felt it. She felt her son’s grip on her tighten slightly, she was in so much shock she let his hand go as she watched her son's eyelids flutter and begin to open, blinking against the harsh lights of the hospital room.

 “Where am I?” he muttered, bringing the hand Anne had previously being holding up to his head. “And why does my head hurt so badly?”

 “Oh my god Harry, I’m so glad you are finally awake sweetheart, these last few hours have being absolutely awful.” Anne let out.

 “Mum? Why are you here? What's happened?” Harry asked once again, rubbing his head with his free hand slightly, before looking to his right, "And why is Louis here?" Harry added on looking confused, and Anne wanted to hug every single person because Harry remembers Louis.

 “Harry baby, what’s the last thing you remember?” Anne asked next, because Harry didn't know why he was here, and he may know Louis, but he might have still lost some memory.

“I was really drunk and in the back of a taxi with Nick, I think I was crying but I’m not really sure.” Harry answered her, and Anne had never felt so much relief in all her life as she watched Harry fully emerge from his slumber, shaking Louis hand to jostle the older boy awake since he still had a tight grip on Harry's hands. Anne watched his eyes slowly start to open, blinking a few times to get use to the new light and wake himself up, Anne watched as he registered Harry sitting their watching him with his doe eyes, watched his head snap up to look at the younger boy as a little colour came back to his face. He still didn’t look great, with his hair all over the place, bags and redness around his eyes, but he seemed to gain some life back into his by seeing Harry finally awake; and before Anne could blink he’d jumped up from his seat and pulled Harry into a bone crushing embrace.

 “Oh my god I’m so glad you’re awake.” Louis exclaimed, his voice coming out slightly muffled from where he had his face buried in Harry’s shoulder, and a few tears escaping his eyes.

“Not that I’m not glad to see you too Lou, but can one of you please tell me why I’m here and not in my bed at home, I wasn’t that drunk was I? I’m sure Nick drank more than me, and why are you two here and not in Manchester?” Harry asked as he wrapped his arms around Louis’ frame, looking at Anne over Louis’ shoulder.

“You and Nick were in a crash love, your taxi was hit by some other car and you were brought into hospital after hitting your head.” Anne told him quietly.

“Yes because you listened to that fucking twat Nick Grimshaw and took your seatbelt off you absolute idiot, why would you ever think it’s okay to take off your seatbelt?” Louis continued, pulling away from Harry slightly so he could see him and talk clearly, but keep his arms around him as well, Anne tried not to cringe at the use of swear words that had being pouring out of Louis’ mouth all night.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t thinking.” Harry muttered, looking lost for words.

“Damn right you weren’t, how many times have I told you never to listen to Nick because everything that comes out of his mouth is fucking garbage? And now you’ve listened too him and ended up in fucking hospital; do you know how scared I was? Getting a phone call at half 1 this morning from Zayn telling me you’d being in a car accident and had being brought into hospital, I’ve never being so scared in my entire life, and then the nurse came out and told me that they hadn’t managed to wake you up yet because you’d hit your head and they didn’t know if you’d suffer any memory loss. I was terrified you’d forget me when you woke, that you’d look straight through me and not recognise me. That’s the scariest feeling in the world Haz, and it all happened because you thought it would be perfectly fine to take off your seatbelt.” Louis exclaimed, the tears had started falling faster once again and by the end of the speech he was once again crying his eyes out, Anne saw an unfamiliar look on Harry’s face, she wasn’t sure what she’d describe it as, but he seemed absolutely distraught and like he might also start crying any minute now as he pulled Louis back into a tight embrace, wrapping his arms around the boy and letting him cry into his chest. Anne felt like she should give them a minute to themselves, let them talk and cry it out, so she quickly slipped out of the room ready to make some phone calls and let everyone know he was okay.

-

Louis had finally managed to stop crying and he and Harry had talked, Louis making Harry swear on his life that he’d never not use a seatbelt for as long as he lived, and they were now laid wrapped around each other on Harry’s hospital bed. A nurse had being in to check up on him and cleared him without any injuries but said they’d like to keep him in overnight just to be certain. Anne had returned and sat with her son for a while after having phoned everyone to let them know how Harry was, but the nurse had returned and told them that because Harry was now awake and perfectly stable that they had to stick to visiting hours and he was no longer able to have any visitors.

Anne had left with a kiss to her sons forehead and a promise that she’d be back later in the day when it was once again visiting hours, Louis had however refused point blank to leave Harry, said he was never leaving his side ever again for as long as they both lived; and the nurse didn’t seem to have the energy to argue with him, and since Harry had his own private room she had said Louis could stay, but only Louis.

So now they were laid together on Harry’s bed, Louis on top of the sheets while Harry lay under them, Louis pressed firmly against his side while playing with his fingers as Harry drew lazy patterns into Louis’ arm. It was only just gone 2 in the afternoon, but they were both rather sleepy after the events that had happened so were content with sitting in the comfortable silence.

“I really am sorry you know, I never meant to scare you like that.” Harry said eventually, biting down on his lip as he turned to look at Louis’ face.

“I know you are babe, and honestly stop worrying yourself; you’re totally fine and haven’t died or suffered any memory loss so there is nothing to be scared about anymore. I’ve got you laid perfectly safe in my arms and nothing matters anymore.” Louis replied, tipping his head up to brush his lips against Harry’s who nodded his head and sighed in content. Louis pulling away almost immediately before snuggling back down in Harry’s embrace, his head resting on his chest where he could hear the steady beat of Harry’s heart. He finally felt relaxed and content after having the worse day of his entire life, and he could feel his eyelids drooping slightly.

“You go to sleep baby, it’s being a long day and I’ll be right here when you wake up.” Harry whispered to him, and Louis couldn’t find it in himself to protest against him and his heavy eyelids, letting himself slip into a slightly more relaxing sleep than before.

 -

“Gary said he might pop by sometime today as well.” Niall told them, it was visiting time and everyone had returned to see Harry – including Nick much to Louis’ annoyance that he sent him death glares as soon as he walked through the door. Louis had woken up about 40 minutes ago and found Harry asleep as well, momentarily panicking but Harry had woke up as soon as Louis shook him.

 “Why?” Louis asked for Harry, he had moved to sit on the seat beside Harry’s bed with Anne and Gemma sat on his other side and everyone else stood around. Louis’ dad hadn’t returned but Anne told him that he was booked into a hotel and sent his best but, felt like he should leave visiting to the family and close friends so would see Louis and Harry when Harry was discharged. Anne also said Jay sent up her wishes, and that she’d spoken to El for Louis who’d said she’d let his teachers know that he’d be missing a few lessons, and to give her best regards to Harry.

“They were kind of mad at you right now because they’d being paparazzi lurking at the hospital doors and so of course they therefore got pictures of you rushing inside the building, and when people online got a hold of them their was like an outbreak from the Larry shippers; saying it was obvious you were closer than what you claim etc. Modest! were fuming, the photos obviously got taken down and they paid the paps to stay away from the hospital and not post the pictures but they'd already spread so nothing could really be done about the fans who'd saved them, and now they’ve got security on the entrance just in case anymore show up. But Gary said it was unacceptable and he wanted a word with you both.” Niall replied.

“Well he can fucking have a word with me, because if he thinks for one minute I’m leaving this place without Harry then he’s got another thing coming, Harry’s never leaving my side ever again.” Louis told them, not letting his eyes train from the TV above Harry’s head and he’s sure he heard a snort come from the younger lads mouth but he choose to ignore it; and before anyone else could speak the topic of conversation walked through the doors and created a silence anyway, his two trusty sidekicks by his side

“We’d like to speak to Louis and Harry alone if that’s possible.” he spoke, his tone void of emotion just like every other time.

“No it’s not, Harry only has two hours visiting time and to be perfectly honest with you everyone in this room is much more important to Harry than you and your scrawny little bitches.” Louis stated boldly, not looking to Gary. He honestly couldn’t believe he’d just spoken like that to him but he also really didn’t care.

“Excuse me Mr Tomlinson that is no way to speak to someone, you should learn to respect people.” Gary stated, and Louis felt anger boil up inside him as he snorted.

“Excuse me Mr Modest Guy, you have a fucking nerve telling me how to speak to someone when you treat my boyfriend like he’s nothing more than a piece of shit that’s come out of your arsehole, when you learn respect then I’ll maybe start respecting you.” Louis told them, his tone cold and hard. 

“Honestly we don’t have time for this, we need to start talking about getting you back to Manchester unseen and getting Harry back out there, we think he’ll need to do a public interview to explain everything.” Gary stated, looking past Louis and straight at Harry.

“Well he’s grounded for the next week for listening to pee brain over there, so you’ll have to wait at least a week for the interview because as soon as Harry is discharged he is coming to Manchester with me and he’s not allowed out for the entire week.” Louis stated with a shrug of his shoulders and he noticed Niall start to snigger from the corner of his eye and wanted to smile at the blonde, but refrained himself for doing so.

“You can’t tell me when my clients are available and what not, he has an extremely busy schedule and we are already behind because of this little bump in the road there’s no need to get anymore delayed.” Gary stated, looking at Louis with a cold hard stare. 

“Well that little bump in the road cost Harry a night in a hospital bed with a head injury that nearly caused him server memory loss, so I’m sorry if you think Harry is working next week but he isn’t a piece of meat that can be worked to death, he’s coming home with me and if you try to stop us then your face will be meeting the concrete, and I’m pretty sure at least 4 other people in this room would be happy to help me with my plan. So why don’t you fuck off back to your big ass building and stop bothering us for once in your life because I am seriously getting sick and tired of you and your crap. I never signed any contract with Modest! Management so I can say and do what I like. Now I’m not about to do anything that will risk putting Harry in any legal trouble with your stupid company, but so god help me if you think about overworking him after being in some major crash. Now get lost before I call someone in here to make you get out yourself.” Louis managed to keep his voice down as to not draw attention from nurses and other patients, but he’d stood up now to show he was serious, and added a sassy little wave onto the end of his speech.

Gary looked shocked for all of a second before he seemed to compose himself, straighten himself and his suit jacket out before sending Louis an extremely cold look – not that he minded – before turning on his heel and leaving the hospital room, his helpers following him out immediately.

 “That was priceless, did you see the look on his face. He was utterly gobsmacked that you actually had the guts to talk back to him and refuse to do what he was saying.” Niall said when he’d left, bursting into a fit of laughter causing a few others to start laughing as well.

“Well it’s about time someone stood up to the arsehole; they need to learn how to treat human beings.” Louis told them with a shrug of his shoulders as he plopped himself down on the bed beside Harry, wrapping his arm around the younger lads shoulders who whispered a thank you. 

-

Harry had fallen asleep already, but Louis was not feeling tired at all he’d slipped out the room and down the corridor towards the main entrance; he was still wearing his pyjama pants and jumper since he hadn’t left the hospital at all that day to change, although he had shred his hoodie in the heat, gave it to Harry who said it was abit cold in just the hospital gown and he was now snuggled inside it asleep; he was just glad the staff hadn’t put up much of a fight, although they seemed to realise arguing with them was a lost cause because they had left them alone for the better part of the night, just making sure Harry got his night time meal - as well as Louis since they said they couldn’t let him starve – as well as one last night time check up and the delivery of his painkillers he could take if he started having any headaches or other pains.

The front doors opened automatically and the cold air hit time harshly, causing a violent shiver to course through his body. He’d text his dad half an hour ago asking him to meet him here since he hadn’t really had chance to see him since his meltdown this morning and he wanted to thank him really, and he’d just received a text to let him know he was waiting outside since he clearly wasn’t allowed to Harry’s room at this late hour, it was only Louis allowed in there.

Louis noticed his dad stood a little off to the side, a cigarette in his mouth as he stared up at the sky, Louis shuffling his way over, watching Mark drop his gaze to him when he felt his presence. He must have noticed Louis was shivering because he held his arm up and Louis quickly slipped into his side and wrapped his arms around his dad.

He hadn’t shared an embrace with his dad in a long time - apart from this morning, but he'd being a crying mess then and hadn't too much notice - and he realised he’d missed them. He missed the familiar scent of his dads aftershave mixed with the lingering tobacco and mint that had filled his senses as a child. He’d always being close to his mum a bit more, having a slightly tighter bond with her since he was the only one not biologically related to his father; but they’d also had a tight bond, sticking together since they were the only two men in the house and the girls often ganged up on them.

Things between them hadn’t changed since the divorce either, Louis had being worried they would, that once Mark was officially divorced from Jay that he’d no longer want anything to do with him, just wanted to spend time with the girls instead, that he'd only put up with Louis because of Jay. But he’d being so wrong, sure he didn’t get to see Mark as much as he’d like or that often to be honest; having to attend Uni and then having to split his free time with seeing his mum, his dad or Harry- and of course leaning more towards the latter- but he knew his dad was always there for him, just like he had being this morning, when he’d needed an emergency lift to London because he was in too much panic to drive himself and he knew Eleanor didn’t know the way, wasn’t comfortable driving the car too far and had work the next day. 

“Thank you.” His whispered quietly into his dads jumper, but loud enough for his dad to hear. He had so much to thank his dad for after today, but he didn’t really know where to begin. Usually he was good with words, never found it hard to express his feelings to anyone, yet right now he couldn’t find words good enough to tell his dad how much he appreciated him, so he tightened his arms around his dad and hope he got the message from the simple action and phrase.  Which he seemed too because his dad tightened his arms as well?

They stayed outside for a while, long after his dad had finished his fag, and they'd sat down on the bench and talked about the days events, which Louis once again thanked his dad for; before talking about what would happen tomorrow and if Louis would need a lift. Louis explained he was planning on taking Harry back with him anyway so he should be fine riding back with Anne and them, although Mark said he’d stick around just in case, which Louis was thankful for because although he was fairly confident Anne would give him a lift – she was like a 2nd mother to him they were that close – he still hadn’t officially asked her.

They then had abit of a catch up, Mark asking Louis how his University work was coming along since they hadn’t had a big catch up in a while, just small phone calls. After this they parted ways, Mark had booked himself into a hotel, not feeling too comfortable spending the night in Harry’s house although he’d being reassured that it was fine. So they hugged once again before Mark headed to his car and Louis heading back inside. 

He bought a bottle of water from the vending machine before heading back down the corridor; Harry was still sleeping soundlessly when he walked back into the room, curled up in a ball looking much more comfortable and like himself than he did this morning. Louis smiles to himself, before putting the bottle of water down and pulling back the bed sheets, climbing under cautiously not wanting to jerk Harry awake. Once he’d managed to get under them he wrapped his arms around Harry’s middle, who seemed to become aware of Louis returning presence as he turned around in his arms, pressing his face into Louis chest and snuggling close but never waking up. And although Louis really wishes the events of today had never happened, and hopes nothing similar will ever happen again he can’t help knowing that tonight will be the first night in a long time he will actually get a good night sleep, because he is finally back where he belongs and so is Harry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to update, I literally wrote about 100 words during exam week because I was that busy. and then I wanted to make sure I got this chapter right, it was important for me to try get the emotions correct, and also make the slow transition into the last major part of this story before it comes to an end (which sadly is fast approaching) but hopefully i will get the next chapter to you much quicker, because like I said I now no longer have any college left :)
> 
> as always kudos and feedback much appreciated :)
> 
> (and does anyone know how to get the note from my first chapter to stop appearing on every chapter?)


	16. Chapter Fourteen, A Week With Louis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry spends his week off with Louis, before surprising him with a weekend away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, so before you read this chapter I'd just like to mention that it does contain a smut scene which is probably really bad because I really am not good at writing smut at all and try to avoid it but I thought you guys might like some smut.

Harry was enjoying finally having a week of freedom, a week without any interviews or promotions, a week where he could just relax and enjoy himself for the first time in a long time. Obviously since the album was due out soon, the boys had to continue with promotion and interviews without him, although they had managed to reschedule a few of the TV tapings and it was just mainly radio interviews that he was missing out on. But every time the other 3 reassured the fans that Harry was perfectly fine, that he had suffered no major damage or injuries and had being discharged from hospital and was spending a week resting and making sure his energy was back before he’d be returning. The fans didn't seem to distressed by his accident sending him well messages of support on twitter, trending _Get Better Soon Harry_ and _#DirectionersAreHereForHarry_ for various amounts of time throughout the first day, only a few messages from fans seemed over the top and asked if he was dying.

Harry replied to a few fans to give them reassurance as well and prove he wasn't in fact dead, before tweeting that he was going to spend the week away from twitter or any other social networks while he rested, then locking his phone away, using Louis’ or the house phone when he needed to contact people. Louis had sent him a tweet as well through managements orders, to keep up the friendship side of things, the tweet simply reading, _@Harry_Styles_ _Hope you get better soon mate._ but Harry hadn’t replied and didn’t intend too either. Louis had only sent the tweet so management wouldn't bug them all week anyway. 

The 5 days that Harry spent at Louis’ flat were fun and he really enjoyed them, Louis looked after him best he could, making sure he was always warm and fed and let him choose what they watched. Harry knew it was because the accident had brought out his natural protection instinct, the same one that came out when his sister Daisy fell off her bike last year and ended up spending a few days in bed thanks to a headache, Louis had being by her side the entire time; and now he was exactly the same with Harry.

Louis obviously had classes to attend, although he had told Harry he’d skip them and get El’s copy of the notes, Harry had insisted that Louis went to his classes, telling the older boy that he’d already missed far to many lessons thanks to Harry already; so Louis reluctantly went to lessons giving Harry the apartment to himself; although he normally tended to just shower or phone either his mum or Gemma, that way it freed up his time whenever Louis was about to give his boyfriend his full attention, which made Louis happy as well.

Harry got to know Eleanor better as well, he’d always felt bad about not really knowing her that much since she was Louis’ best friend. Harry knew how close the pair, had listened as Louis had talked about her and the stuff they got up to when Harry wasn’t around; and he’d always felt like he should know the girl better but had never really had the time. But living under the same roof as her for 5 days gave him plenty of time and he bonded with her brilliantly.

He discovered she had a bubbly personality and was pretty confident with herself, she could talk for hours without getting bored and was also a really good listener. She had strong opinions on practically everything and if you disagreed with any of them then she would spend hours proving why you were wrong and she was right.  She could be rather sarcastic and loved teasing Louis about all sorts of stuff, but at the same time Harry could see she truly loved Louis and would always make sure he was okay and would be there for him whenever he needed her. She was honestly like Louis’ twin, and Harry felt naturally at easy and comfortable around her, didn’t feel like he needed to hide anything from her because he knew she could be trusted; and he could see the twinkle in Louis’ eyes as Harry and Eleanor bantered between each other and he knew how important it was to Louis that his boyfriend and best friend got on so well and the three of them spent a few nights talking until the early hours of the morning together, tucked underneath the huge blanket to keep themselves warm in the heating free apartment.

Eleanor also spent a few nights out; going for study dates with this guy named Max who Louis was convinced she was sleeping with, but didn’t complain because it give them the apartment, and allowed them the alone time they desperately craved; the boys honestly not realising just how much of a crap substitute phone and Skype sex was until they finally had the real thing back. They spent the nights rememorizing each others bodies and mapping each other out and taking control over one another, making sure the other one completely let go and having every little detail programmed into their minds since they knew by the end of the week they’d once again be separated, no matter what is said in the heats of the moments or in the dead silences.

Eventually though, Harry grew restless since he was literally confined to Louis apartment, not able to leave on strict management orders in case anyone saw him scooping around when he was suppose to be in bed resting, plus the fact he wasn’t at his home in London but at Louis’ apartment near Manchester University would raise a lot of questions and through the use of twitter people knew that Louis was attended Manchester Uni which would raise suspicion and cause people to "jump to conclusions" - which were probably all correct - in places Modest didn’t need it raised. 

But to make sure Harry didn’t get too restless they had agreed to visit his parents at the weekend, planning on travelling up on Friday night when it was dark since Anne had told Harry that a few fans had being gathering near his house everyday in hope they’d catch a glimpse of him even though they knew he was "in London", but they were always gone in the night and this would give Harry the best chance of getting Louis there without being seen; although on Friday morning he changed his mind.

-

Louis and Eleanor had left for their morning classes and Harry had being thinking about what they could do at home without any of the fans stood on the drive realising they were there when he had the brilliant idea of leaving the country with Louis and his family rather than spending the weekend at his house. He had a friend in America that owned a holiday home somewhere in Spain that no one knew about; his friend had always said Harry could borrow it whenever he needed, and he could easily hide there for the weekend with Louis and not worry of anyone seeing them.

So he sorted everything out with his friend, getting told where he’d find the spare keys and what the pass codes that prevents people getting into the grounds of the house were, he phoned up his mum and arranged for them to make sure they all packed their summer clothing because they were now going to Spain instead; he also got in touch with Louis’ mum, inviting her, the girls and her boyfriend along for Louis since he knew the older boy hadn’t seen them since the day together at the bungalow.

Once he had everything sorted with the family he got everything sorted with the airport, him and the boys had recently bought between them a private jet, and knowing none of them needed to use it for the weekend he arranged for him to use it, and also got the airport to say that the plane had flown to France rather than Spain to tip people off even more.

Once completed he began packing his and Louis’ bag, he didn’t want Louis finding out about the holiday till the last possible minute so if he packed Louis’ bag he could pack clothes suitable for hot weather rather than England and Louis wouldn’t need to know. He knew how much the older boy hated packing, which was why he hadn’t got it done yet, and he knew he’d accept it when Harry said he’d got bored and decided to pack both his and Louis bags since there was nothing to do, because then he’d get away with not packing his bag. 

Eleanor returned just after 1, telling Harry that Louis had gone straight to the library to get some work done so he was free all weekend; Harry filled her in on the plan and asked if she wanted to join them although she declined because she needed to work since Christmas and a certain someone’s birthday was coming up and she needed the extra cash; but she helped Harry find some of Louis’ summer clothes that he’d stored on top of the wardrobe in the hallway to make room for his winter clothes in his own wardrobe and then helped pack with him. 

By the time they were finished – it too longer since they had some lunch and kept getting distracted with their conversations – it was 4 o clock and Louis had text Eleanor to let them know he’d be back for 5 at the latest and he was bring back some Pizza so they didn’t need to make anything for tea. 

So once Louis got home with 3 extremely yummy pizza’s from Pizza Hut, the 3 of them all sat down on the sofa and watched TV and chatted while they ate and waited for the text from Harry’s mum letting them know the fans had left the drive.

The text came about 9, so they said their goodbyes to Eleanor and collected their stuff and were on there to Harry’s mums place by half 9. Harry had recollected his mobile and was double checking everything was set as he sat in the passenger seat of Louis’ range rover; the radio playing quietly in the background.

The drive from Manchester University to Harry’s families house wasn’t long, about 45 minutes at the most, and Harry knew he’d have to tell Louis about the change of plans since his mum, Robin and Gemma would all be piling into the car rather than Louis and Harry actually getting out. So when Louis pulled into the driveway and removed his seatbelt Harry chose to tell him. 

“Wait up babe, there’s being a change of plan.” Harry said, reaching out to grab Louis’ arm.

“Change of plan?” Louis asked confusion and curiosity making it way to his face.

“Yeah, where heading to Spain instead of staying here.” Harry replies simply like the news is perfectly normal which he knows for Louis it isn’t, out the corner of his eye he can see his stepdad opening the front door, but his main focus is on Louis whose jaw has dropped. 

“Spain?” he asked his tone of disbelief.

“Yeah, I mean it’s perfect because this mate of mine has this holiday home there that’s sort of in the middle of nowhere so no one will ever know we are there; we can just relax and have some fun. I have sorted it all out with the airport and everything, and I packed your summer clothes as well, c’mon Lou it’s going to be great.” Harry told him, smiling at his older boyfriend hopefully; although he knew Louis was fine with it because he could see the smile creeping its way on his face. 

“Okay fine, but only because you hurt yourself last weekend.” Louis tells him, before getting out the car to help Anne, Robin and Gemma get their bags into his boot; Harry smiling to himself, knowing Louis was using the excuse for himself more than Harry; but he didn’t complain as his family climbed into the back of the car and Louis started the half hour journey to Manchester Airport.

\- 

It was getting late by the time they were pulling into the back entrance of the airport, security waiting to guide Louis' car to a safe parking space where it’d be secure for the entire weekend. Harry had receive a message from Louis’ mum when they had being approaching the entrance to let him know they were about 5 minutes away, so Harry knew that by the time they’d all got their bags and made their way over to the entrance that they’d likely be there as well.

Harry didn’t hesitate to take Louis’ hand in his own once the car was locked up and the keys left with the security man, and Louis didn’t pull away, instead locking their fingers together and squeezing. Harry wasn’t worried about running into anyone, and if they did then oh well can’t be helped. 

The walk from the car to the entrance wasn’t too long, and with the cold weather everyone was grateful, ready to enter the warm airport, already missing the heated interior of Louis’ car. The airport was gratefully quite at this time of night, not as many flights taking off during the night than the day. Luckily as they walked into the airport 2 girly voices that Harry recognised rang through the place, so Harry wouldn’t have to stall Louis by the door.

“LOUIS! HARRY!” the look of surprise on Louis’ face when he turned to see his family approaching was priceless, the twins were up front as they ran towards them, arms outstretched for a hug. Daisy heading straight for Louis and Phoebe for Harry, both of them immediately picking up the girls when they practically crashed into them. Louis shooting Harry a confused look over his sister’s shoulder, Harry only throwing him a smug smile as he tightened his arms around Phoebe; he’d always loved Louis’ little sisters and was looking forward to spending the weekend with them.

Once all the greetings had being done they all headed to get checked in, the twins refusing to leave Louis and Harry not like the boys minded so they carried them; plus it was nearing to 11 by now so the girls were probably starting to get tried. Luckily checking in wasn’t bad because Harry had sorted everything out, and it wasn’t like they had to wait for a certain time or for other passengers since they would be the only ones on the plane.

Another 45 minutes or so and they were boarded on the plane, the girls had reluctantly let go of the boys and were now sleeping in chairs across from them; their parents had taken the fours seats behind them and were talking quietly and catching up; while besides them Lottie, Fizzy and Gemma were all on the brink of sleep and Louis was leaned back into Harry, watching out the window as they waited for the plane to set off, sleep almost taking over him as well; and Harry was preparing for a nice peaceful ride, all of them sleeping so they’d be up and lively for tomorrow.

-

The house was absolutely stunning, it’s painted white with huge class windows and doors making the house very spacious and bright, much like a summer home should be. There’s a total of 7 bedrooms, 3 bathroom plus an en-suite in the master bedroom and a large living room, dinning room and kitchen; with a huge backyard containing a deck top pool, with another pool on top of the house which has a sort of glass like dome over the top and is clearly there for if it’s raining or any other unsuitable outside weather. Either way Harry was looking forward to using both.

Louis’ sisters all ran off as soon as the mini bus dropped them off at the house, ready to shotgun the 2 best bedrooms while everyone else carried the luggage, luckily there wasn’t much since they were only here for the weekend. When they entered the house they could already hear the girls bickering upstairs, there was enough rooms that they’d be able to share in pairs rather than as a foursome, and now they were clearly arguing about which room they were having, Lottie and Fiz using the excuse of being older to try get the better room.

Jay rolled her eyes and headed off to sort out her daughters while everyone else started roaming the house themselves; Louis dragging Harry upstairs to shotgun their own room, and ending up shot gunning the biggest one with the queen-sized bed that the girls had clearly overlooked for a bed each; and although they should maybe consider giving it to either set of their parents, they don’t think about that, instead all Harry can think about is how hot Louis will looked underneath him, their sweaty bodies stuck to the plush white sheets; and if his dick twitches slightly he ignores it, letting Louis drag him up to the roof to see this inside pool.

“I’m definitely fucking you in that pool before we leave.” Louis voice low and seductive in Harry’s ear as he speaks, taking Harry’s earlobe between his teeth making Harry moan, and if he wasn’t very aware of the fact there was 4 young girls running around the house as well as their parents and his older sister then he’d take him right there right now. Instead he just turns and crashes their lips together, licking into Louis mouth immediately making the older boy moan and wrap his arms around his neck. 

“Please remember you are not the only ones in this house and that some of us really don’t want to see the snacks they ate on the plane once again.” And Harry and Louis break apart to see Gemma entering, a smirk on her face and her eyebrows raised. Harry loves his sister with all his heart he really does, but she had the worst timing ever; and the habit of popping up during awkward moments, or times they were having a moment which end up ruined. The amount of times she’d walked in when he and Louis were starting to get intimate was honestly unbelievable.

“We aren’t animals, I am very aware my younger sisters are in this house, now come on Haz let’s go see if our bedroom has a lock on the door.” Louis replies with a cheeky smile, grabbing Harry’s hand and pulling him along while Gemma just shoots them a fond smile and little shake of her head.

Louis leads Harry down the stairs, and the excited squeals’ of Louis’ sisters are still heard, although they weren’t as loud and it was obvious they’d moved to the bottom floor of the house, which was better off for his and Louis’ plans anyway.

Once they reached the bedroom, and discovered it did indeed have a lock on the door, they made it over to the bed, lips moving in sync with one another and their tongues battling for dominance as they fell onto the bed, Harry on top of Louis and taking more control over the situation, because although Harry was the youngest, he was usually the more dominant one in the bedroom, although they did swap about often to keep it fresh.

They more often than not took their time with one another when being intimate with each other, but they were both very aware of the fact that there was a full household of their families just downstairs and that they should probably be as quick as possible to avoid anyone interrupting them.

They both stripped of all items of clothing; getting them out of the way so they could focus solely on each other as well as grabbing the lube Harry had packed in his bag. Once they had everything ready they returned to one another, Harry once again on top of Louis, this time his lips working their way down Louis’ jaw and neck biting the most sensitive points that had Louis moaning and aching underneath him; his hips coming up off the bed to meet Harry’s as their semi-hard erections met one another making them both moan with pleasure and their cocks to harder even more.

“What do you want?” Harry asked between kisses, his voice low and seductive as he whispered into Louis’ ear before beginning to work a love bite into the skin below the earlobe making Louis’ breathe hitch and his hips lift off the bed slightly. 

“Want to ride you.” Louis whispered back, his voice just as low and seductive as he tipped his head forward, capture the skin on Harry’s neck with his own teeth and starting work on making his own love bite in Harry’s creamy white skin; they both were aware it was risky since Harry was back to work in a couple of days but Louis was past giving a fuck and was just ready to enjoy a nice night with his boyfriend; and the moan Harry let slip indicated he was feeling the same way.

“Need to open you up first” Harry whispered as he continued his work on destroying Louis’ neck, Louis keeping up his work as well as he leaned up, pushing Harry with him until the younger boy was sat on the bed with Louis in his knee, giving them both a good access to each others skin; plus giving Harry the perfect chance to begin opening Louis up, reaching across the bed he grabbed the bottle of lube that had being waiting.

They’d not being using condoms this week, having decided their was no point in using them so Harry hadn’t bothered to pack any for the trip either, knowing it was extremely unlikely that Louis would change his mind now and want them to use protection; so without having to worry about that Harry began to get to work. 

He removed his lips from Louis’ soft skin and began to coat two fingers with lube, making sure they were fully coated before he started anything; although trying to be as quick as possible because his cock was practically begging to be inside Louis, as it throbbed hard and angry against his stomach, pre-come leaking from the tip; and the fact that Louis’ looked exactly the same showed that the older boy was just as desperate as himself.

Once his fingers were fully coated he got both him and Louis into an easier position before easing one finger into Louis’ hole, feeling how nice and tight his boyfriend was while Louis let out a porn worthy moan before biting down on Harry’s shoulder, not hard enough to hurt but hard enough to leave a mark. 

“Oh my god Lou, you feel so amazing.” Harry let out, moving his finger about expertly.

“More Hazza, please.” Louis moaned out, letting his head tilt back in pleasure as Harry let his second finger slip into Louis; pumping them both slightly which earns yet another satisfied moan from Louis as he continues working his fingers, he’s done this plenty of times before and knows exactly how to work them so that he opens up Louis but also gives him as much pleasure as possible at them same time.

He get’s 3 fingers up before Louis’ absolutely begging for more, telling Harry’s he’s ready and he needs his cock right now; so Harry pulls out and Louis begins lathering up Harry’s cock with lube, rubbing up and down his shaft making sure it’s properly covered; and Harry’s so turned on by now that he’s honestly worried he may just come right here right now but then Louis’ movement stops and Harry knows he’s ready.

He takes hold of Louis’ hips so he can guide the older boy correctly, guiding him over to Harry’s own hard cock; Louis’ lifted himself up for easy access and coming down on Harry’s shaft making both of them moan in pleasure. Harry loving the feeling of how tight Louis was around his cock, how Louis entire body seemed to fit around Harry. He loved pounding into Louis, weather it be hard and fast, or soft and slow; but he also loved it when Louis rode him, watching him as he lost control, watching the pleasure that showed on his face as he bounced about on Harry’s cock; now that was one of Harry’s favourite things in the world.

Once Louis had gotten over the initial feeling of having Harry inside of him, he began slowly moving; they always went slow at first, picking up speed the further they went along. Harry wrapped his large, spindly hands around Louis’ own cock and began slowly pumping it, making Louis moan even more with the pleasure he was experiencing.

As Louis began picking up his pace Harry felt himself coming extremely close to the edge, watching Louis’ sweaty body continuously moving up and down Harry’s cock, Harry aching up to meet Louis while also pumping Louis own cock with his hands.

“I’m s-s-so clo-close Haz!” Louis stuttered out, his breathe coming out in short bursts which showed even more just how close to the edge he was, and this making Harry come closer to the edge as well. 

“So am I baby, so am I, come on let’s do it together.” Harry managed to get out, and 5 more thrusts and pumps saw them both climaxing together, Harry spurting out into Louis while Louis spurted out into Harry’s hand and stomach; both of them collapsing against each other as they came down from their highs. Sweat and come covering their bodies but neither boys minded, they’d clean up in a moment.

Harry removed his cock from Louis before leaning forward to once again capture Louis lips with his own; this time the kiss was slower, more tender than the ones previous, they weren’t kissing to lead to something more, they were kissing because they’d had their high, because the moment of pure pleasure was over and now they were just content with being with each other and within one another’s company. They moved back so they were laid on the bed as the continued kissing for a little while longer before they simply just wrapped themselves around one another, laying on the bed in silence staring at one another. 

“OI IF YOU ARE DONE IN THERE WE WERE WONDERING IF YOU WERE COMINg DOWN FOR ANY BREAKFAST!” came a fist pound and Gemma’s voice through the door and the moment was effectively ruined; Harry letting out a groan as Louis giggled, sitting up and bringing up his boyfriend with him so he could drag him off to their en-suite bathroom to get cleaned off before they headed downstairs.

Once they’d cleaned off and changed into some swimming trunks and tank tops - since they both knew that although it was early in the morning, no one was going back to sleep and their day of lounging around the pool officially started now. So they headed downstairs towards the kitchen were everyone else was gathered, Louis’ sisters all sat at the table eating various different breakfast foods and drinks that all looked like they came from Starbucks so Harry guessed someone had run out and got them. All the adults were stood behind them, Gemma, Anne and Jay all holding mugs and all 5 of them had smirks on their faces which made Harry blush because he was aware that they knew exactly what the two boys had being up to, weather it be because they heard or because Gemma couldn’t help herself and told them Harry would never know.

“Breakfast is on the table boys.” Anne simply said, and without another word began conversing with Jay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So once again sorry for the wait, to everyone who commented on my apology last night, thank you so much all your comments made me smile so hard and I love everyone of you, I'll try get the next chapter out faster because I actually go on holiday next Saturday and I want to get another chapter to you guys before then. So see you soon :)


	17. Chapter Fifteen, Stolen Phone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just when they thought they might have a few drama free days, more drama happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to update, because I didn't managed to get it done before my holiday that put me 10 days behind, and then I also went away fthis weekend for a McFly concert, so if I hadn't being away this would have being out a few days ago. But hopefully it's worth it. 
> 
> Oh also, this chapter contains alot of fluffy Elounor friendship, since I'm not sure how much her character will be needed in the next couple of chapters.

They ended up having a great time in Spain, even though they stayed in the house the entire time to make sure Harry wasn’t spotted, they still managed to fill the weekend with fun activities. They played endless games in the large garden space, spent ages messing around in the pool (with Louis and Harry managing to sneak in some pool sex in the indoor one) but of course it had to eventually end. So with sad and downhearted spirits they all packed up and headed back to the airport on Sunday night, ready for the girls to get back to school the next morning, ready for Louis’ morning lectures and ready for Harry to get back to work.

Their flight was a late one once again but had being scheduled to drop everyone off at Manchester Airport before heading down to Heathrow to drop Harry off since he had to be in London the next day for work and it was easier than him having to drive down over night and waste time when he could be sleeping and resting before the long day ahead, plus both Louis and his mum were still weary about cars since the accident, especially if he was driving alone.

So he said his goodbyes to everyone at the airport, his goodbye with Louis lingering on longer while everyone else headed off the baggage collect allowing the boys a few last moments together. Once again they didn’t really know when they’d be seeing each other again, even though Louis had initially said he was never letting Harry out of his sight again they’d know this was never going to be plausible with Harry’s job and Louis’ lessons; but the older boy was determined to keep extra tabs on Harry, make sure they talked via phone or Skype even more regularly than they managed to at the moment because he knew Harry would be busy with promotion a lot and he knew that his Uni classes would likely get slightly tougher with the wind down to Christmas approaching, professors wanting to get some work in for them to mark over their time off. It was kind of scary that Christmas was creeping up on them, Louis would have to ask for some shifts at the bar to get some extra cash for Harry’s present.

Once they’d finally broke apart, giving each other one last kiss goodbye -Harry promising to phone Louis the moment he touched down in Heathrow to assure him that he was safe – they went their separate ways, Louis off to find everyone else and Harry off to London.

Louis spends the car journey in almost silence as he drives up to Holmes Chapel, Harry’s family had said they could easily get a taxi, let Louis get home and get some rest but of course he’d refused, told them he was driving them no matter what; and they’d reluctantly agreed; leaving Louis’ family at the airport to get back to Doncaster safely.

They’d also offered Louis a place to stay for the night, said he could stay with them and get some rest before heading back to Uni in the morning; but he’d once again declined, he was very aware they didn’t have a spare room in their home, their previous spare room having become a study several years back which meant he’d have to sleep in Harry’s bed and he was aware that it’d be hard sleeping in his own bed tonight after getting so accustomed to the younger boys presence beside him; but sleeping in Harry’s actually bed without him would just be 10 times worse.

So he bids them farewell at their home, promising to let them know he got home perfectly safe and didn’t fall asleep at the wheel causing him to crash; so he’d given them all another hug goodbye before setting off back home, texting El first so that if she wakes up tomorrow morning and he hasn’t returned, she can let the police know the exact time he should have returned.

When he finally reaches his apartment he was beginning to feeling emotional again, not being bothered with anything other than getting inside the apartment he grabbed just his iPod and phone, leaving his bags for the morning.

Harry had phoned him just after he’d dropped the others off, and thanks to his hands free phone installed in his car they’d ended up talking until Harry had got home before Louis had told him to go to bed and get some rest, meaning they’d reluctantly hung up on one another just over 5 minutes ago, which was the reason for Louis’ emotions being all over the place, hearing Harry’s voice and knowing he wouldn’t be by the boys side tonight was hard.

He tried to be as quite as possible entering the apartment knowing El would likely be sleeping in the room down the hall, so he slipped off his shoes and jacket silently, locking the door and heading towards the living room. He was planning to just heading straight to bed, but he came face to face with El when he entered the living room, she was tucked up on the big arm chair and looked up at him when he entered before standing and holding out a hot cup of tea for him.

He smiled at her as a thank you and took the mug in his own hands, and he knew she was very aware of his emotional state and not 30 seconds later was she holding her arms out and he was being pulled into a bone crushing hug; the smell of strawberries and El’s favourite Marksies perfume filling his nostrils, giving him a sense of home that he desperately needed without Harry.

They stood in silence for a while, Louis gratefully that his best friend knew he didn’t need to talk about anything that he just needed some comfort after once again saying his goodbyes to Harry. El just kept her arms locked around him in a comfortable embrace, sure he’d have liked it to be a larger, manlier body wrapped around his, but this was almost as good; and when he let a few tears slip from his eyes, down his cheeks and onto El’s shoulder she just tightened her grip.

Eventually she let him go, giving him a chance to drink up the now warm tea before she took his hand and lead him to her bedroom; he was already wearing an old t-shirt and some pyjama bottoms from the flight since he liked to travel comfortably, so she simply let him get into her own bed that was already messy and showed Louis’ she’d being asleep before he’d got home. He climbed into the bed quietly, sleeping on the side of the bed he knew wasn’t the side El stuck too; El climbing in a moment later and wrapping the duvet around their bodies to keep them warm, never once saying anything and Louis was glad that even in the silence she knew him well enough to know that saying goodbye to Harry was tough on him and that he often just needed someone with him, someone else’s presence to help him through it; so before he settled down to try get some rest, he silently leaned over to peck her cheek, let her know he was grateful before settling back down on his side of her bed and trying to get some rest.

The other side of the bed was empty when Louis woke up, but their was still warmth their letting him know it hadn't being vacant for long. Louis had managed to get to sleep, but had had a dreamless sleep and most likely moved around a lot - he might need to apologise to El for that. Quickly he slipped out of bed, getting hit with a sudden blast of cold making him shiver and take note that the temperature had dropped even lower during the night. He grabbed the blanket thrown over El's desk chair before heading into the main part of their apartment with it wrapped around him, El was waiting in the kitchen, still dressed in her nightwear and had a fried breakfast waiting on the table along with a steaming mug of tea; her back facing the stove while she plated up another plate for herself.

"Morning babe, cooked you something to keep your energy up for the lectures today, heard the professors are going to start cracking down on us as we head into the Christmas season." Se told him without turning round and Louis was so grateful that she already knew that yesterday had just being hard with saying goodbye to Harry and that there was nothing of concern they needed to talk about. So he sat down at the table, El sitting across from him as they began eating their breakfast; a proper cooked English breakfast featuring sausages, bacon, eggs, beans, toast and hash browns were always Louis' favourite and he ate the entire thing within 10 minutes.

"I'm getting a belly with the amount of food you and Haz have had me eating recently, honestly I wish I had both your bodies so I could just eat and eat and not get any bigger." Louis complained, stroking his belly as he sat back in his chair, taking hold of his tea in one hand to drink.

Once they both had finished their breakfast they headed into their separate rooms ready to get dressed for their day ahead, it was a busy one filled with a lecture and two seminars, but they were both fine with it after having got into the regular routine of it all.

Louis pulled on the large grey jumper that was hung over the back of his chair over his plain white t-shirt, it fell half way down his thighs and cover his hands slightly so he had to roll up the sleeves, but it was Harry's, it smelt like the younger boy and that's what Louis wanted. He wore the jumper with some tight skinny jeans that he hoped where tight enough to keep out the cold, and for once he pulled on some socks, thick night ones that would keep his feet warm since his VANs weren't that thick. He made sure he had all his books and other necessities in his messenger bag before heading back into the living room to find El packing up her bag, dressed in her own winter cosies.

"Can't believe it's only October and already we are dressed for Winter, I swear this country gets colder with each passing year." El told him as he entered, pulling on her favourite pair of boots that she'd owned for a good few years now.

"I know, I'm already looking forward to the summer when we can wear shorts and t-shirts again." Louis replied as he grabbed the car keys from the side, call him lazy but he didn't want to walk in this weather, he'd kind of known from the beginning that he'd give up on the walking to Uni pact he'd made.

Once they were both ready they headed out, they'd probably be early but oh well, it'd be warm in the lecture theatre and they'd have choice of seat rather than attempting to squeeze into any free seats. And if they were early they could just chat for a bit, and Louis could maybe get in a few texts with Harry as well.

-

"How you feeling?" Was the first words to be spoke from Zayn's mouth when Harry opened the door to him, the second thing the older boy did was hold out a bag of McDonalds breakfast for Harry to take before following the younger boy into the kitchen.

"I'm completely fine, spent a week relaxing inside Lou's apartment with him spoiling me rotten the entire time before heading to Spain to spend the weekend with my family. So all in all it's being a rather good week and I'm kind of ready to get back into work." Harry told his band mate as they sat down at the kitchen table, sharing the breakfast, he knew the car wasn't due for another 40 minutes or so but Zayn will have wanted to check in on him and make sure he was fine to get back to work.

"Really, you’re ready to get back? Thought you'd never want to return." Zayn exclaimed with a chuckle.

"I mean I loved having a week off and not having to worry about anything, but I love being in this band and getting to sell our records to thousands of people, and honestly when you can't leave a place in case you get papped and then get in trouble with management, then it's get abit boring. Would've being nicer if I could get a week off, but not have to stay inside the entire time just so I can see my boyfriend." Harry explained, knowing Zayn would understand because the older boy always did.

"Well hopefully we can get everything about this fucked up situation sorted before your next break, me and the boys are determined to fix everything H" Zayn told him, and that was the end of the conversation, the two moving onto small talk about the past week as they finished their breakfast and waited for the other lads to turn up.

They had a photo shoot scheduled for today, it'd be a long day but not too hard, just a few clothes changes and then standing in different places while someone took pictures; so it was a good way to ease Harry back into the workload before they got shipped off around Europe for even more promo later in the week, honestly Harry was looking forward to that, he couldn't wait to get out the country with the lads, even though he'd be further away from Louis, it was straight after spending a week with him so although he'd obviously miss him it wasn't like he hadn't seen him in weeks like the last time he'd being out the country.

When the boys turned up they were pretty much all over him, giving him hugs and checking that he’s okay and honestly he was on the verge of rolling his eyes at them even though he knew they only cared about him; so instead he just give them hugs and told them over and over again he was perfectly fine and was totally able to get through the photo shoot today.

In the car journey to the photo shoot the boys filled Harry in on some schedule changes, since they'd cancelled their trip to Ireland while Harry was on a weeks break they'd rescheduled to head out to Ireland the next day and record their interview on The Late, Late Show, which would air a special One Direction episode since it wasn't the usual day The Late, Late Show was on, which put them a day behind on getting to Europe but it was okay since they didn't need to be in America till the 6th anyway, so they’d only have 2 days break instead of 3.

Once they got to the photo shoot they were met with Lou and Caroline, Harry was glad to see Lou, he'd always being close to her and she was another one of the few that knew the whole truth about Harry's life, she felt like family and he trusted her with everything. He was also glad to see she had Lux with her today, Harry loved the little girl so much, could spend hours playing with her and interacting, had even babysitted for Tom and Lou a bunch of times when they wanted to spend some alone time. So once he was all dressed in his outfit for the first shoot, he made sure to be last in for makeup so he could spend some time with Lux; he hadn't seen her in a while so he had fun messing about with her, he got her to make funny faces with him and even sent a few pictures of him and Lux messing about to Louis since he knew the older boys also had a soft spot for the little girl.

When the other 3 were done with their makeup he reluctantly left the company of Lux to get his own done before they could head down to the studio. The photo shoot was for some magazine that were doing an article about them later in the year, so the shoot was Christmas themed and had them dressed up in their winter gear and had props such as presents and lights for the shoot as well. Harry rather liked this because he’d always being a fan of Christmas, it was his favourite time of the year and he tended to get in the mood fairly early, so spending a day doing a Christmas shoot was pretty awesome for him.

-

"Hey have you seen my phone, I can't seem to find it?" Louis asked El as he stood up and began patting down his pockets, he'd just searched his bag and had not found it and now he was beginning to worry; he’d only wanted to see if he’d received any new messages and now he couldn’t find it.

"No sorry, where did you last have it? You didn't leave it in the apartment did you?" Eleanor asked him, sipping the remainder of her coffee.

"No I definitely brought it out with me because I was texting Harry when I got to the lecture theatre, but now that I think about it I cant remember seeing it since we left but I was sure I put it in my pocket when Professor Granger walked in." Louis told her, looking quickly under the table to see if it had fallen out of his pocket, Eleanor had stood up and was looking as well although neither of them could see it.

"Maybe it fell out in the lecture theatre, why don't we quickly pop back and have a look, we have a while before our seminar and if it's not in the theatre you can see if theirs a teach in there to see if they've seen it; or we can ask at the student reception see if someone's handed it in." El told him when they'd looked around where they'd being sat and also asked the barista behind the counter if he'd seen it.

"Okay yeah, I just hope I haven't lost it!" Louis replied, beginning to grow worried. His mobile was his major source of contact with Harry and also had some photos from their weekend away which he hadn't got uploaded and stored into his computer yet since he hadn't had time, and even though his phone had a pass code he was still worried someone would hack into it, and even if no one did, then those photos would be lost forever and some of them he'd really loved.

"I'm just going to run down to that post box, got to post this for my mum, she's being nagging me to send it to her for days." El told him when they left the coffee shop, handing Louis her bag when she'd grabbed the large white envelope so Louis could get the car warmed up while she ran down to the end of the street.

"Okay that's fine, what exactly is it like?" Louis quizzed, it looked like a small box or something from the outline.

"It's a phone case for her friends daughter, they'd ran out of the design she wanted from New Look so asked me to see if it was in this New Look so she didn't have to order offline and wait ages for it to come, and I managed to find one when I'd checked after my shift last week so had better send it before they decided it'll be quicker to order offline and I've lost some money!" El told him before setting off and Louis headed to the car, deciding to check the car for his phone in case it'd slipped out when he was driving, unfortunately he didn't find it but he did find El's underneath the passenger seat and he realised they both needed to be a little more careful when handling their phones cause they both had a habit of loosing them, El had complained a few times that she couldn't find it around the apartment, and this wasn't the first time Louis' had slipped from his pocket either.

By the time Louis had had a proper good look El had returned, she had rosy pink cheeks from the bitter wind that had obviously nipped at her face, and her nose was turning red like Rudolph.

"Any luck?" She asked as she climbed in the passenger seat.

"No, although I found yours under the seat, I put it in the cup holder and I think you had a message." Louis told her, his voice muffled from where his head was situated underneath the back seats as he looked for his phone but had no such look.

"You've probably left it in the lecture theatre, it's pretty easier for a phone to slip out your pocket, we've both done it several times around the apartment, and maybe if you were paying attention to the professor rather than putting your phone away then you missed your pocket and didn't realise." She stated, before the sound of the keyboard clicks began as she replied to her text message, and he just hummed in agreement as he sat back up, praying it was in the theatre.

His phone wasn't in the lecture theatre and neither was a teacher, when he asked at the reception no one had handed in a phone, although she'd asked what it looked like and said she'd keep him informed if someone handed it in. But Louis was panicking now, it probably wasn't healthy to be so dependant on a phone like Louis was, but since that was his main way to keep in touch with Harry it had became a major part of his life, if he reported his lost phone to his phone company then they should send out a temporary phone while they tried to track his down; but that could take a few days and how was he suppose to last that long with minimum contact to Harry, especially knowing Harry was about to head out the country for some promotion.

"Lou I know you feel like this is the end of the world but you need to calm down, if someone's took it then they'll probably realise it's got a pass code and hand it straight back in because they have no access to it, and if you can't find it and end up needed to get another then you can just borrow my phone for a few days to contact Harry; honestly babe worst things could happen than getting a locked phone stolen from you." El told him as they walked back towards the car after their seminar, the younger girl having being able to tell her best friend had being working himself up the entire time.

"But what if they do get into the phone and find the pictures, or if its gone forever then I’ve lost all the photos I took this weekend, and some of them were really nice and would have being great to get printed out eventually, and now they could be gone forever." Louis told her, pouting slightly which made El have to sniffle a giggle.

"I'm sorry about your photos love, but Harry will have some from the weekend that he can get to you, I'm pretty sure the lad obsessed with Instagram took some pictures." El told him with a smile, linking her arm with Louis' "Now since our afternoon Seminar has being cancelled why don't we head into town and see if we can cheer you up? We can even pop in the pub and see if they have any work available for you to get some extra cash for Harry's Christmas present." El finished, and Louis couldn't help but agree as they made their way over to the car.

"Is he definitely okay then?" Someone interrupted them as he unlocked the door, and the pair turned to face a girl who looked like she was in her first year and had a serious look on her face.

"Are you talking to us?" Louis asked, extremely confused.

"Yeah, you've being with him right?" The girl asked, looking at him expectantly.

"Being with who babe?" He asked her, still as confused as ever.

"Harry! That picture of you with Harry and Gemma that's on twitter from this weekend, I just wanted to make sure he was definitely okay after the accident!" She told him and he’s surprised his eyes didn't pop out of his head with what she told him.

"Oh yeah he's perfectly fine, but do excuse me I need to get going, can’t be late." He explains quickly before jumping in the car, El quick to follow as he started the engine and drove off, leaving the girl alone as he panicked.

"Someone's got my phone and leaked a photo, they've somehow got into it and have access to everything, if they've posted that picture then they have seen every picture, including ones of me and Harry kissing, and me and Harry naked in bed together. I am so dead, no scratch that, Harry is so dead, oh god I need to get in touch with him." Louis mumbled on as he drove, his head all over the place at the moment.

"Lou you need to calm down, otherwise you will be explaining everything thats happened to Harry while he's visiting you in hospital, now I understand that your panicking, but lets get back to the apartment and then you can phone Harry and let him know the truth, that girl didn't suspect anything besides the fact you two are friends so the photo cant reveal too much, here let me find it on my phone, see which one is leaked.” El exclaimed, grabbing her own phone and beginning to search.

“So what if that photo doesn’t reveal much, they still have all the other photos, the ones that definitely reveal things; if they leak them Harry will be in so much trouble because they’ll be no chance of hiding our relationship then. And he’s already being in so much trouble with management recently; I don’t want him getting told off anymore El, it makes him upset and he shouldn’t be put through it, he's only 18 for fuck sake.” Louis told her, his head still flying through a mass of emotions.

“I know your worried about Harry love, but honestly the photo that’s being leaked already doesn’t give away that you’re a couple, cause it’s just you two and Gemma with spaghetti moustaches on the sun loungers. And management seem pretty okay with the whole, _best friends crap_ that’s being made up, and apart from this photo nothing else has being leaked, so maybe more won’t be. Let’s just get you home and onto the phone with Harry so you can put yourself to some ease okay.” El told him, trying to calm him down so he didn’t crash, it seemed to work to some extend and he drove much more smoothly.

He was quick out the car when they arrived back at the apartment, leaving the keys in the engine and everything as he practically tore from the car and into the building, Eleanor following him up and finding him already on the phone when she got up there.

-

They were on a break while they had lunch and were all sat in the green room chatting aimlessly, Harry mainly with Lou as he told her about his week off an what he’d done, he also had Lux on his knee who kept him entertained as well; and although he missed Louis it was nice to be around this family again. He was just in the middle of telling Lou what they got up to in Spain when his phone began vibrating in his pocket, he’d had to put it on silence while he was taking part in the photo shoot and forgot to put it back on loud.

But he pulled it out from his pocket and excused himself from the conversation with Lou before looking at the screen and realising it was Louis’ house phone which was weird since the older boy always used his mobile since he had free calls on it; but he answered anyway.

“I’m so so sorry Haz!” were the first things spoken, before Harry had even any chance to speak.

“What you going on about?” Harry asked confused, it seemed to draw everyone’s attention as the room fell silent apart from the babbles coming from Lux since she was oblivious.

“Someone’s stolen my phone Haz, I must have dropped it and someone’s picked it up and although it’s pass coded somehow a picture of us and Gem from this weekend has got out, and there’s so many other pictures on their of us two Haz and who ever has my phone has those photos, as well as our conversations via text message.” Louis explained down the phone and Harry’s face most have paled at what he said because everyone looked over at him at this point with their brows furrowed as he listened to his boyfriend ramble on in his worried tone.

“Lou you can’t get yourself so worked up over this, it’s no ones fault!” Harry explained trying to calm Louis down, although this was rare territory and he wasn’t really all too sure what he was doing, it was always Louis' calming him down.

“But Haz, if those photos get leaked you are going to be in so much trouble even though it isn’t your fault. They went apeshit on you when I was pictured like 10 miles behind you, I don’t even want to begin to imagine what they’ll do to you if the person who has my phone releases a picture of us kissing.” Louis continues down the phone and Harry decides it’s best to take this somewhere private so he lifts Lux out of his knee and gives her back to Lou before making a speedy exit.

“Look Louis, what can they do about it? They can blame me for the pictures of us being seen together because they can say I did it deliberately just to piss them off; but how can they possibly make you getting your phone stolen look like I done it on purpose? And if they try to make it out like that then I’ve got the others to back me up and El will be their on your side to back you up as well.” Harry told the older boy in a hope he’d calm down a little.

“Yeah but it’s not just Management H, if this photo comes out then so do you. I know we’ve talked about it so much, especially recently and I know you keep saying you’re ready and everything, but this could be the real thing, by tomorrow everyone might know you don’t really like girls all that much; are you really ready for that?” Louis asked, his voiced had come down but his tone still voiced concern and worry.

“Lou sweetie, I’ve being preparing for this day since I was put in the band; I know all about the consequences that it could possibly have and all about the affects it could have on my career, I’ve heard it enough times in the meetings im always being called in for. But I’m so sick of having to hide who I am, who im in love with, I just want to be myself finally and this is the time, maybe this is the best way to come out, it’s like ripping off a plaster or something similar, rather than have this big announcement, just a picture to get leaked but that shows everyone exactly who I am, not one that is blurry or can be explained some other way as something else.” Harry explains, taking a seat on a vacant sofa he’s found in the corridor.

“I just don’t want anything to happen to you or get you into trouble for something that’s not your fault.” Louis says down the line, his voice was quiet now.

“Look don’t worry about it okay, I’ll ring up management and give them a heads up, and is there maybe anyone you think could have stolen your phone on purpose, anyone that dislikes you and wanted to get some dirt on you, or maybe wants to try claim some fame by dishing dirt on me or the band and thought your phone was the answer?” Harry asks, if they have a name or a suspect to give to management then that might be easier, but then again without proof what could happen.

“No I can’t think of anyone. I mean there’s Stan who’s being overly friendly with me since the picture got leaked, and he called over to see if you were here once and has being bugging me for like tickets and autographs. But I can’t see him being that desperate for attention. Plus he doesn’t do English, and his block is right on the other side of campus and he’d have had lectures when my phone went missing.” Louis told him.

“Okay that’s fine, I mean even with any leads I couldn’t really give there names over to management without full blown proof anyway. But I’ll let management know your phones being stolen and I’ll tell them you had a pass code installed because that’s the best security you can get and then they can’t say we were purposely careless to ruin everything.” Harry tells him and Louis nods his head till he remembers Harry can’t see him.

“Okay yeah, sounds best.” Louis replies.

“Well then I need to get back to this photo shoot babe, I suspect our break is almost over and I want run the lads through on everything and maybe see if I can get hold of anyone in the office right now, but shall I text El to keep you updated on everything? Or should I just ring you later tonight and tell you everything then?” Harry asks.

“Keep me updated via El, I don’t think I could cope until tonight.” Louis tells him and he hears Harry hum in confirmation.

“Okay, well I’ll text El and I’ll phone you again tonight, love you.” Harry says.

“Love you too.” Louis replies, and the conversation is over.

Louis sighed as he hung up the phone, no matter what Harry had said he was still worried about how much trouble the younger boy would get in, and how he'd cope with finally being out the closest, it was alot of pressure for anyone, let alone a teenage lad. He hung the phone up and felt El's arms wrap around his shoulders.

"Everything okay Lou?" She asked him, her voice soft and calm.

"Yeah, Harry was pretty calm, said it couldn't be helped and there was nothing we could do. Said he'd phone up Modest and give them a heads up and then said he was ready if a picture of us was released, that he'd being waiting to be out since he got out in the band and he was totally ready for the onslaught of hate that might come. But doesn't mean I don't worry!" Louis told her, leaning back into her comforting touch.

"Well you always worry and that's not going to stop, but at least you can rest a little bit more knowing Harry is fine with everything." She told him, rubbing his arm gently.

"Yeah I suppose, he said he'd keep me updated by texting you because I knew you wouldn't mind and I couldn’t wait until tonight." Louis told her.

“That’s fine babe, now why don’t we head into town like we planned, you’ve checked in with Harry and we can call in the orange shop and see if they can do anything about finding the phone.” Eleanor asked him and he couldn’t help agree with her, he knew Harry and the boys would handle everything, and Harry would contact him straight away if anything went wrong and if he was needed it'd be just as quick to get down to Harry from town as it would the apartment. Plus with everything that’s happened recently he feels like he hasn’t spent much time with just El, and they always have fun when they’re shopping, and like she said he could pop in the orange shop and see if they could do anything.

-

Once Harry had got off the phone from Louis and sat and contemplated what to do for 5 more minutes he finally heading back inside; he'd checked the picture that had being leaked, and it wasn't too bad, just of him and Louis along with Gemma pulling faces at the camera, it had being when they'd all being messing around on the sun beds with their food and his mum had told them to stop being silly before getting a picture of them on Louis' phone. It was pretty tame compared to other pictures Louis had taken over the weekend, but it could just be a start, could be easing them in and then bam they release pictures of them kissing and being naked in bed.

He'd decided he should maybe call a meeting with management, try warn them that Louis' phone had being stolen before the pictures got leaked, maybe that would be the best for damage control, but he had to discuss it with the other lads first, so he went back into the green room, everyone looking up at him in curiosity.

"Everything okay man?" Zayn asked, everyone else staying silent.

"Just when you thing you might get some drama free life, someone's gone and stolen Louis' phone and leaked a photo!" Harry explained, sitting down in his seat beside Lou who patted his arm.

"Oh god, does this mean you've being outed?" Niall said, moving over to sit beside Harry and fling his arms around his shoulders to try comfort him.

"No, the photo is just of us two and Gemma pulling funny faces, but that's not the only photo on the phone, we got loads over the weekend that could be leaked any second!" Harry told them, pulling his lip through his teeth, although he was ready to come out and he'd told Louis this much, it was finally hitting him just how big this could ultimately be, sure he'd love to be able to be with Louis' publicly, not have to sneak around or spend his time with the boy undercover in secret; but the hate that both him and Louis were sure to receive was kind of a scary thought.

"Is there anyway the photos can be explained as something their not to get around them?" Liam asked, both him and Zayn had also moved over to sit near him as Niall kept his arm around his shoulders and Lou kept her hold on his arm.

"Depends what picture gets leaked, like the one of us with Gem can just be seen as friends goofing off, there's being other images of Gem and me messing about with a mate. But there's several pictures of me and Lou kissing on his phone, as well as a picture he'd thought would be funny to get of us straight after we'd had sex, it's not an explicit image but its also pretty obvious what we'd being doing before the picture was taken. We won't be able to explain them off as just mates goofing around." Harry explained, playing his head down on Niall's shoulder.

"Well maybe the person who has the phone won't actually leak any of the intimate photos, I mean if they've only leaked this one picture that isn't too intimate compared to the others the maybe they've decided not to leak the others, I mean wouldn't it make sense to get the ones that cause more stir and media talk out in the open first, get it over and done with?" Niall offered, looking at Harry with a half sort if hopeful smile.

"Yeah but Louis' phone has a pass code so we think it's being stolen by someone at Uni that knows Louis or has observed him and seen him punch it in before and has remembered, cause otherwise how would they have got into the phone? And if someone wants to steal Louis' phone which is getting pretty old now, is cracked and sometimes breaks, then they most likely want it to drop dirt on him rather than wanted the actual phone. So if you look at it like that then it could have being a One Direction fan who is very aware that Louis knows me and to extent you guys after the photo that was leaked a couple weeks back, Louis said himself he's being approached around campus time and time again to get asked about me, so people in his Uni know he's in touch with me, so it could very easily have being a fan that wanted to steal Louis' phone to try get some dirt on me or us as a band. So why would they leak a small, timid picture of me with Louis and my sister and not one of us kissing? It just doesn't make any sense." Harry explained.

"Look maybe this is a blessing in disguise, you've being wanting to come out for as long as we've known and maybe this is the best way!" Zayn prompted, looking over at Harry hopefully.

"Yeah maybe, I just thought it might be best to come out during a quieter time in our lives, what if this affects our album sales? What if no one wants to buy our album anymore because on of the members sucks dick!" Harry explained with a sigh.

“Don’t worry about our fucking album sales mate, you know that we care more about you and your happiness than that; it’s always being that way, your like our brother, so don’t dare get worked up over anything like that or worried that we’d care about anything like that.” Niall exclaims, looking offended that Harry had even thought about this.

“Sorry mate, but you know that’s what I worry about and what I’ll always worry about.” Harry tells Niall.

“Well you need to try stop, just make sure you’re ready for a photo of you and Louis to hit the web just in case it happens okay.” Zayn tells him and when Harry nods he continues. “Now you go mess around with Lux for the remainder of our break and me and Li will go and phone the office and let them know someone’s stolen Louis’ phone eh?”

“Yeah thanks man, that’d help me out a lot, I don’t really fancy facing Gary yet to be honest, I’m pretty sure I’ll be seeing or hearing from him a lot if a photo is leaked.” Harry tells them, before leaving his seat to get on the floor beside Lux who was now playing with her dolls and more than happy to let Harry join her, he could hear Niall and Lou discussing the events, and he watched Liam and Zayn slip out of the room out the corner of his eye.

-

Louis’ glad El persuaded him to come out with her because he ends up having such a great time. They visit the orange shop as soon as they've parked the car up, and they tell him that they can’t do anything to find out who stole it or whereabouts it is, but if it’s still missing in 5 days he needs to come back and because of his contract they can sort him out with a replacement, since he's on an orange contract till the end of the year.

So after he’d being in there for half an hour they’d popped to the pub and talked to the owner who told Louis’ he’d phone the apartment whenever there was help needed and if Louis was free for that shift it was his. Louis was so grateful for this deal he had with the owner, he knew it was only because his dad was a regular and got on with the owner extremly well but it was so easy that it was on his terms, that he could easily just tell the owner he had something else to do and couldn’t make the shift and he wouldn’t even bat an eyelid, he’d just ring someone else up; so Louis could easily cancel out if Harry needed him.

Once he'd visited the pub they headed into town, ready to have some fun. They visited Starbucks first to get themselves a coffee since it was cold out and they also had a game they liked to play whenever they were out shopping but weren't really there to actually buy anything, they always pretend to be these top a list celebrities, the ones you always see pictured in magazines shopping in LA with their Starbucks coffee cups in their hands. They'd being doing it ever since their first ever shopping trip together, they'd got everything they needed and had a few hours to kill so had ended up pretending to be celebrities for the afternoon, visiting shops that were far too expensive for them and pretending they could afford it.

So after they'd bought their "celebrity drinks" they headed towards the Arndale Shopping Centre, the main shopping centre in Manchester that held the majority of the shops.

"You know what babe, since I'm such an amazing best friend, I even have my staff card in my purse that will allow me to get a staff discount from Hollister." El told him with a smile as they entered the centre, relishing in the warmth that came with the building.

"Oh my god I love you!" Louis exclaimed, being as dramatic and over the top as he always is whenever their playing their celebrity game, giving her a big sloppy kiss on the cheek that made El cringe and attempt to scrub at her cheek.

"Ewwwww I've being slimmed!" She said, being just as over the top as Louis himself.

"Cool people don't quote Drake and Josh honey, honestly." Louis told her with a flick of the wrist, acting as camp as he possibly could, nothing beat a stereotypical gay celebrity, this of course caused both of them to burst into a fit of giggles a few seconds later, causing a few people to give them dirty looks but they didn't really care.

Once they'd finally managed to calm down enough to stand up straight once again, they headed over to the map to see what shops to visit. They'd finished their coffees and decided to visit the shops that they knew from experience had multisex changing rooms, allowing them to try on expensive clothes and take goofy pictures together in the mirror that would later go on facebook.

They decided to head over to Topshop first off, it didn't have multisex changing rooms but it was their favourite shop to visit and dream about what they could pay for if they actually had enough money. The shop was large with the ground floor dedicated to ladies clothes and the initial Topshop, and upstairs being the Topman half of the shop. They spent a good 10 minutes picking out everything they liked and pretending it was in their price range, but even with their student discount they didn't have enough, even though both of them had jobs it was a lot to pay £50 for just a dress or £30 just a top.

After searching the shelves and hangers, and talking up whenever a sale assistant walked by, talking about what they "already owned" and what they needed, of course they left the shop empty handed. Wandering around the centre and slipping into the really expensive shops that often had over the top clothing that they'd never dream of wearing either, or outfits that they could find similar designs of in Primark for a much lower price. They tried on goofy hats and sunglasses in a shop that had a t-shirt in their sale for £350, taking pictures and laughing until the shop keeper had given them a very stern look which made them decide they should probably leave. Eleanor had also spotted a sign on the door that said the shop was proud to say they'd served One Direction and held a picture of the mean shop lady with the boys in xfactor, she'd ended up laughing for the next 5 minutes about if only the shop keeper knew who she'd being given dirty looks to, she'd also made Louis promise to return when him and Harry were finally out, preferably with Harry in tow just so she could see the look on the ladies face.

After they'd being into the shops too expensive for themselves - and also visited the Disney and Build-a-Bear shop because it wasn't a shopping day if they didn't, and so what if they looked silly visiting the shops at their age, they were still children at heart - they headed to New Look and H&M, sadly Arndale didn't have a Primark which was their favourite shop, they had to visit Market Street for that and they couldn't be bothered today, but they liked these shops just as much, and bought a few new jumpers and clothes suitable for the winter, El ended up using a big chunk of her weeks pay on some new boots in New Look, saying she'd save from now on and not buy anything else unless it was a Christmas present.

They also visited Hollister, El chatting with a colleague of hers while Louis looked around, thinking about maybe getting a head start on Harry's Christmas present, knowing the younger lad was into Hollister clothing, but he didn't see anything that sparked his interest or made him think of Harry so he left the store empty handed, him and El deciding to head back to the car.

They were walking down the busy street towards the centre of town where they'd parked the car, when he heard a squeal and then a tap on his shoulder, turning around he became face to face with 3 girls aged around 16 with huge smiles on their faces.

"Hi, are you Louis Tomlinson? The guy who's friends with Harry Styles?" The girl in the middle asked and Louis immediately wanted to walk away, what was with people approaching him today? Only one photo of him with Harry and Gemma had being released for fuck sake.

"Erm... That's me I suppose." He answers, making sure he keeps his arm tightly locked with El's which is slung around his to link them together, he doesn't want her leaving him in this awkward situation.

"So do you like really know Harry from One Direction, like you've being in the same room as him and everything!" The girl to the right exclaimed, looking like she'd struck gold.

"Yeah I have,  but I mean you can do find out everything online so we better get going." Louis told them, trying to edge backwards, El immediately following his lead.

"Could we possibly have a picture with you before you leave? Just to show people that we've met Harry's best friend, people would be dead impressed." The girl in the middle asked, fishing her phone from her pocket and looking hopeful.

"Sure I guess, El can quickly take the photo!" Louis says cautiously, reluctantly unhooking his arm from El's.

"Oh my god, you are Eleanor Calder? The person who Louis always tweets and retweets?" The girl on the left says excitedly, El just nods her head and grabs the phone, clearly wanting to take the picture before she gets dragged into it. Louis sighs but stands between the girls and smiles at El as she clicks the button and snaps a few pictures so then the girls can pick the best one.

"Okay there's the picture, but look we really have to go now because we've got a seminar soon and we can't risk being late for it, but it was nice meeting you girls, and before you ask, don't worry Harry is fine!" And with that he grabbed El and ushered her down the street, making sure to give her a glare when she started laughing after they had got a safe distance away from the girls.

When they returned to the apartment and Louis checked his iPod he noticed several tweets from the girls today in his mentions.

_@JessicaLoves1dx: OMG!!!! WE MET @Louis_Tomlinson TODAY IN MANCHESTER, HE WAS DOING SOME SHOPPING AND HE WAS SO HOT! LOOK!!! pic.twitter.com/9Hpn5wUTn2_

_@MrsHarryStyylees: CANT BELIEVE WE SAW @Louis_Tomlinson WHILE SHOPPING TODAY, HE TOLD US HARRY WAS PERFECTLY FINE, THANKFULLY! pic.twiiter.com/0IGjsvUArw_

_@ZiamIsForeever: @Louis_Tomlinson is such a sweetie, he talked to us for like 5 minutes about his friendship with Harry, still cant believe it was him. pic.twitter.com/ifvER0nc3M_

_@x1dxloverx: @JessicaLoves1dx @Louis_Tomlinson Omg you are so lucky you meet him, he looks so hot, don't suppose he was with Harry though :(_

_@JessicaLoves1dx: @x1dxloverx @Louis_Tomlinson no he wasn't with Harry :( and yes he's so hot in real life, but he was with @EleanorJCalder and they looked cosy together._

_@x1dxloverx: @JessicaLoves1dx @Louis_Tomlinson @EleanorJCalder omg are they dating like??_

_@JessicaLoves1dx: @x1dxloverx @Louis_Tomlinson @EleanorJCalder I think so, they looked like they were and they always talking on here. If they are their really cute._

_@x1dxloverx: @JessicaLoves1dx @Louis_Tomlinson @EleanorJCalder aww that's really cute, and imagine if they got married and he had Harry as his best man. He'd look so hot._

"Oh my god El have you seen this, those girls we met today have decided we are a cute couple and that we should get married and Harry should be my best man, god these girls have good imagination." Louis told her, holding his iPod out to her as he laughed at there ridiculous tweets, that made her laugh as well.

"Oh god, how I'd love to be in the mind of a Directioners just for a day" El said with an amused tone as she handed the iPod back.

After the pair had got over the initial amusement and Louis had used El’s phone to text Harry telling him to check out the girls twitter pages to see how funny the tweets were, the pair decided to finished their day by ordering takeaway – which they did more often than not in this apartment – and watch a movie together before El’s study date with Max and Louis’ nightly phone call with Harry which shouldn’t be too bad since Harry had kept him informed during the day that Zayn and Liam had phoned the office and found out Gary was out so they’d left him a message explaining what had happened with Louis phone.

Louis had also noticed that as of yet there had being no more photos leaked, which put his mind at ease slightly; so he was fairly calm, although he had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that this might be the last time in a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you've enjoyed it and it was worth the wait, Kudos and Comments always make me smile. Also, I've never being shopping in Manchester before, all these shops and the shopping center was based of me googling Manchester Shopping, and then googling Manchester Primark when I released it wasn't in the main center.
> 
> But this story is coming to an end now, I think i'll only have two more chapters plus an epilogue left, I'm not sure it might turn into 3. But for updates;
> 
> Follow my twitter: @xLillyMaee  
> Follow my tumblr: everythingsfineishiplarry
> 
> oh and also, the twitters I used for the fans I came up with at the top of my head, if their peoples actual twitter accounts and you want me to change them then let me know :)


	18. Chapter Sixteen, The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys visit The Late Late Show in Ireland, and they let out an exclusive for the fans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This hasn't being proof read, I don't think they'll be any major mistakes, just some spelling/grammer mistake I might fix tomorrow. But if there is a major mistake let me know.

Harry might possibly be more excited than Niall to be headed back to Ireland; he knows it’s the blondes home and he’s excited to see his family, but Harry’s also really excited about heading back over. They haven’t being in what is almost a year as he’s pretty sure the last time they were their was for the Up All Night Tour, and he’s always loved visiting; they usually end up having a great time and with everything that’s being going on lately Harry things that’s just what he needs, some good, relaxing fun with his boys.

Of course, the news that the boys are heading to Ireland has gotten out, so when they reach the Heathrow there is dozens of fans waiting for them as well as what feels like a million paparazzi. Obviously with Harry having being away from all this the past week, it feels weird to suddenly be surrounded by it once again; but he keeps calm and obtains the same attitude he always does, signing as many autographs and posing for as many fan pictures as possible while promptly ignoring the paparazzi and the questions they are currently shouting at him.

It seems to be only outside that is crazy, inside the airport is pretty calm and they get through security and departures pretty easily and are boarding their plane in no time, ready for the just under 1 hour flight into Dublin. They are all aware that they will likely be even more fans and paparazzi at the other end, but they don’t dwell on it because with it being a school day that usually means it’s calmer, plus their just happy to be heading to Ireland, even if it is just for the day.

When their flight has touched down and they’ve grabbed their bags from luggage claim they head towards the exit. Meeting up with Bobby Horan who’s travelled down to see them since he knows they don’t have time themselves to travel up to Mullingar. He gives them all a quick hug before leaving them to greet their fans, knowing he can catch up with them in the car back to the hotel; he even takes their bags since their light, only holding enough luggage for the night, and that way they won’t get in the way while they take photos.

There isn’t as many gathered here as their was at Heathrow, and Harry’s pretty sure they’ve got through the majority of them, if not them all, before they are getting pushed towards the van to make sure they keep on schedule since they had a feeling they would likely be more fans gathered at the hotel since it was the same one they always stayed in whenever they visited Ireland. 

However, when they arrived at the hotel they were lucky to find the entrance was clear of any fans, just a few people milling around the entrance that looked like guests as well as a few hotel workers stood holding open doors and carrying luggage for people.

They all hopped out of the van quickly and got inside, in case their happened to be like a mass of fans lurking just near the entrance, although this was highly unlikely, just a safety precaution mostly. The hotel lobby was practically empty, just two males sat in seats on opposite ends of the room clicking away at their phones with their briefcases sat beside them making them look like perfect business men. There was immediately 2 hotel workers approaching them and offering to take their bags to their rooms, all the boys declining before following Paul to the main desk to get them checked in. 

They’d being booked into the whole top floor just like usual, all the rooms being rented out to them and with a special password installed on the lift that needed to be entered in order to access the floor. But since they’d being doing this for around a year now they were all use to this drill and room their room keys and the code before heading up; all biding farewell when they each got to their rooms ready to just relax for a while before they were getting whisked away once again.

Harry entered his own room knowing what to expect; hotel rooms mostly had the same layout and eventually just all merged into one. They always had a large bed in the middle which was against the wall separating his room from the room next door, they was always a table against the other wall that held a TV and had a mini bar underneath as well as space to work if he needed too. They would be a large wardrobe in the hallway beside the door and they’d be a large ensuite bathroom connected as well as a large balcony.

Harry dropped his bag into the open wardrobe before heading into the main part and flopping down on the bed with a sigh. He never was a fan of hotel rooms; always preferred the tour bus whenever they were touring, and it was simply because they felt too big just for him. He wished that they could go back to the time when they’d just hire one or two rooms instead of an entire floor, a time when they were made to share rooms instead of having their own. The rooms never felt too lonely then, the bed never feeling too big for just him.

He sighed once again before sitting up and grabbing his phone from his pocket to see if there was anything new happening. As of this morning there had being no new images leaked online much to everyone’s relief, but that didn’t mean that no new images would be leaked. Because Louis still hadn’t found his phone or had any idea to who might’ve taken it, and since they’d already leaked one photo Harry had a feeling they’d release more, they were just waiting to cause the boys to worry more.

He had a few unread text messages so he decided to respond to those first, he had one from Eleanor’s phone from Louis which had just told him that he was heading to lessons and that he’d speak to Harry later when he’d finished on The Late Late Show. It was kind of weird with Louis’ phone, it limited their contact because they no longer where constantly texting throughout the day; usually they text each other none stop about little insignificant details, but since he now had to text Louis by texting El’s phone, he knew that she would likely be reading the text first, plus it wasn’t fair to have her phone constantly going off with texts from him that were directed for Louis.

He also had a text from Gemma which was just her reply to the conversation they were in the middle of but had being put on hold during his flight and travel to the hotel; so he sends of his own reply even though it’s likely that by now she’s in a lecture or seminar and can’t reply. He then checks his messages from Nick which are 3 and just tell Harry exactly what Nick is currently doing, which is what practically all of Nick’s texts to him consist of, with Harry occasionally throwing in a reply although he decided that right now he wouldn’t and he’d just send one later when he’d got another 4 messages from the radio host.

Once he’d finished in his inbox he decided to surf twitter for a while since he had nothing better to do; he clicked onto the app and started going through his friends and family pages. He followed so many people now, and had so many mentions coming in that he often missed important tweets; plus he wasn’t actually following Louis so he never got his tweets through onto his timeline; so he clicked onto his boyfriends page first.

@Louis_Tomlinson: my phone got stolen today; having to use @EleanorJCalder’s to contact people until I get a backup sent :( 

@Louis_Tomlinson: cold winter nights like tonight make me realise just how much I miss being wrapped up in your arms when you can’t be with me!

Those were the only new tweets from him, and Harry was itching to retweet the last one, but he didn’t just like every other time he’d seen a tweet from Louis that was begging for a retweet. Instead he just clicked off Louis’ profile and onto Gemma’s to see if his older sister had tweeted anything interesting. Since he’d last checked she’d just really wrote about tv shows and tweeted his mum and her friends, however three tweets immediately caught his eye, they had both being tweeted earlier today, the first one a couple of hours ago and the second two a few minutes after one another; Harry could have probably guessed the meaning behind them both but he’d double check with his sister later.

@GemmaAnneStyles: unless you know me, my brother, my family or my friends personally I suggest you stop trying to be smart by insulting people we care about!

@GemmaAnneStyles: just because my brother is part of a band doesn’t mean you have the right to every part of his personal life, stop acting like you do.

@GemmaAnneStyles: so sick of immature people thinking they can just insult the people I care about the most and get away with it, you’re just jealous you’ll never know us.

This wasn’t the first time Gemma had took to twitter to express her annoyance about the fans and their hate toward him and the band. She often stuck up for him which was one of the many, many reasons he loved her as much as he did, and he was guess that this time she was annoyed at what people had being saying about the leaked photo from yesterday. He wasn’t blind either, he’d seen the comments about people calling Louis a gold digger that’s suddenly just now appeared on the scene to try get some money from Harry, but he’d just ignored it because he knew the truth. Anyone who knew Louis knew how hard it was to get the older boy to accept anything from the younger boy. But obviously it had annoyed Gemma and she’s snapped back, but it wasn’t like he cared, management couldn’t call him out on anything his sister tweeted, she was free to her own devices – although she never tweeted anything she knew would put Harry in trouble with management.

He clicked off her profile and it went back to the discover page, and Harry immedialty realised that his sisters name was the number 1 trending topic, and of course he wasn’t just going to ignore it, so he clicked on too see exactly why she was trending.

@FutureMrsStyles: Gemma is clearly annoyed at everyone for calling their friend Louis, you all need to piss off!

@xGrylesFan: you do realise Gemma never mentioned @Louis_Tomlinson, she could have being going on about anyone!

@NarryIsReal: it’s not like Gemma would admit he’s a gold digger is it? I stand by my word, @Louis_Tomlinson is just after the Styles money.

@JessicaLoves1dx: every should back off, Gemma never even mention Louis’ and besides I met him yesterday and he’s lovely.

@1DFan____x: why is everyone arguing, if Harry and Gemma are stupid enough to believe Louis is legit than let them. It’s not our fault.

@ILuv3Harry_: It’s clear Gemma’s tweets were about Louis, and it’s clear he’s close to their family. so stop bickering about it.

Harry continued reading down the feed, refreshing every minute or so to reveal 100s of new tweets all about the same topic; and Harry was tempted to laugh, tempted to retweet half of them, tempted to tweet all of them about it, instead he settled for just sending out one tweet…

@Harry_Styles: @GemmaAnneStyles, logged on too see you trending… my dear sister what have you possibly done. 

He knew his mentions would be pilling in right now but he didn’t care to look at them and instead close down the app, pulling up his messages and sending one off to Gemma.

We so need to have a nice long chat later today, you’ve cause plenty of drama on twitter today :p xxx

He then spotted a new message in his inbox and clicked on it.

Niall: Another photo of you and Louis has being leaked, once again it isn’t a bad one but thought you should check it out. http://25.media.tumblr.com/a8....

Harry immediately clicked on the link and brought up the photo, and Niall was right the photo wasn’t a bad one, it was another one from their weekend away but this time the two of them where sat at the kitchen table with their mums stood behind them as they smiled for the photo. They were holding hands, they didn’t have their arms wrapped around each other and yes it could very easily being seen as just two close friends and they definitely could have being worse pictures leaked, and Harry wanted to know why none of those pictures were getting leaked.

He knew that this picture will have only caused another outburst of drama in the 1d fandom and he didn’t feel like seeing it right now, so he quickly forwarded Niall’s message on to El so Louis could get a heads up before he locked his phone and pulled out his iPod, ready to drown himself in music.

It was 3 songs later and a song line that struck Harry with an idea on what he could do in the next 2 hours before. He’d previously being contemplating this very idea a few weeks back, but then he’d had the accident and it had put a stop in his plans and he’d forgotten all about them until just now. 

So he sat back up and pulled out his phone once again so he could let the boys and Paul know that he was doing a job and that he’d meet them at the studios rather than heading down their with them. He then rang the one person who he knew would be able to help him with as he pulled on his shoes and jacket and headed back out.

-

Harry had text in advance and found out that the boys had arrived at the studio just over 5 minutes ago and that Paul would be waiting by the entrance to get him inside and too them. The car pulled up outside the studios and Harry was able to see Paul stood by the door behind a few fans, Harry was surprised at how few fans were actually there, usually they had big receptions whenever they turned up to places like this. But he didn’t mind, this way he wouldn’t leave any of them out, he’d get through them all and it wouldn’t be as scary or claustrophobic.

He got out the car and quickly began signing different items and taking photos for the fans before following Paul into the studio, where he knew they’d be heading to wherever the other boys were waiting which was probably the green room.

When they reached the green room, the boys were waiting inside along with Lou and Lux, Harry immediately heading over to the little girl who began giggling at the sight of him and smiling brightly when Lou kindly handed her over, but he made sure to be careful that she didn’t jostle his arms too much when he took her, sitting down so he could hold her on his knee instead.

“Where’ve you being mate?” Niall asked, his mouth full of food so you could see the crisps he was currently easting much to Harry’s distaste.

“Tattoo parlour, being wanting to get this new design for ages but never really had the time and since we were free I thought why not.” Harry told them as he bounced Lux on his knee who had now gone back to being more interested in the toy she was holding than Harry.

“Hey, me and Zayn were at a tattoo shop this afternoon we could’ve gone together, if you told us.” Liam told him with a pout, which Harry wanted to laugh at.

“You got another tattoo?” he instead asked, directing it at Zayn.

“Nah mate, our Liam got his very first one.” Zayn replied with a smile as he patted Liam’s back.

“No way, really? What did you get?” Harry asked excitedly, he’d always loved tattoos and had being trying to persuade his band mates to get matching ones since he’d being legal enough to get them.

“Got a screw on my ankle just like you two, hurt like a sucker but totally worth it.” He told Harry with a smile and Harry was even more excited.

“Oh my god Niall, you totally have to get one as well, and then we’ll all be matching. It’ll be like the one direction tattoo.” Harry says looking at Niall who’s still eating his crisps without any manners whatsoever.

"There's no way in hell I'm doing that, I'm not going to get ink tattooed on my body forever just because you want to having matching ones." Niall tells him, which makes Harry pout and everyone else laugh, most times Harry acted way more mature than his age, but whenever he wanted something he pulled out his pout and puppy dog eyes and everyone saw the young 18 year old boy and most of them time ended up giving in, Niall wasn't going to this time. "And no pouting or puppy dog eyes either." Niall added on, “now what did you get inked on you?” 

“Things I Can and Things I Can’t on my lower arms, feels like it symbolises everything the management won’t allow since I got the can’t one tattooed on the arm with all my Louis’ related tattoos.” Harry explains to them, moving Lux over so she sat on just one half of his knee so he can show them.

“Wow cool designs, although you could’ve picked abit better font dude!” Niall exclaims, cause although he’s the first to decline getting any ink he’s always being interesting in everyone else’s. 

“It’s Louis’ writing mate, had him draw out the alphabet one time in bubble writing.” Harry told them as he rolled the sleeves back down and moved Lux back over so she was more secure.

“Aw, even more meaningful!” Zayn teased, pushes his elbow into Harry’s side lightly; Harry just rolls his eyes.

It isn’t long after that the 4 of them are being dragged away from the green room because Caroline needs them in wardrobe, needs to make sure the outfits she has chosen for them to wear are okay. Of course they are, Caroline has being working with the boys since the beginning and knows exactly what they like and don’t, knows there own individual styles and what they’d refuse to wear. She’s also smart enough to know that they do not wear matching outfits.

Once they are happy with their outfits and dressed up ready for the recording, they are getting pulled into the room next door and having Lou start with their hair and makeup, even though when it came to their hair, half the time they ended up messing about with it themselves making it seem like she’d wasted her time completely, Harry being the worst culprit of this. 

Finally, once they had all had their hair done and their makeup perfected, they were ready to go live; although they still had about 10-15 minutes before so they headed back up to the green room to meet Ryan and have a catch up with him since it had being a year since their last appearance.  
It felt like no time at all that Ryan was leaving them to head out on set and get started, having to warm up the audience first like always before introducing them; so he went off with some producer, while the 4 of them followed Paul and another worker to where they had to stand and wait to be called on stage, which was abit different to their last appearance because this time they weren’t performing.

There was several backstage workers milling around their entrance, making sure everything was in order as the 4 waited for their cue to enter, which was basically Ryan introducing them, and they knew it was about to happen when one of the women wearing a headset and carrying a clipboard started making sure they were stood in the correct order for the seating arrangements.

Soon enough they were being called onto stage by Ryan, a round of applause sounded through the studio as they stepped on stage with smiles and waves, heading over to their seats which had being all lined up so they all had a view of Ryan when he spoke to them.  
Once they were seated and the audience had settled down to silence Ryan began the interview, and it was immediately fun and interesting like last time. He started up with asking about rumours that had being circulating the net, Niall getting questioned about a supposed squirrel attack, while Liam talked about the time Victoria Beckham rejected him, and Ryan addressing their seemingly random tattoos, getting interested in Harry’s latest ink although his jacket sleeves are too tight for him to roll up and show everyone. Plus, this time when Taylor gets mentioned he asks all 4 of them about her rather than Harry, so he doesn’t get annoyed as much.  
“Now in all seriousness Harry, I know everyone’s being joking around with you about Taylor Swift and all these cougars, but it does seem like you’ve settled down.” Ryan says and the denial is on the tip of his tongue, ready to tell Ryan that whatever supermodel he’s getting linked with is not real, but Ryan’s pointing to the back screen first and he turns to see the image, which makes him freeze in his seat and the colour drain from his face.

The screen isn’t showing a picture of him and some model friend of his, but in fact of him and Louis from their trip to Spain; Louis had taken it while they lay in bed together, wanted to take a selfie and at last minute Harry had leaned over to kiss him causing both of them to giggle while the phone snapped the image.  
It was perfectly clear that it was Harry and it was perfectly clear that Louis was a male and not just a female with short hair, thanks to the one day scruff he was sporting over his chin. Harry suddenly felt like the room was spinning slightly, like something was just going to open up and swallow him whole, he thinks the entire place has just gone completely silent, that a single breathe could echo around the room from how quiet the place was. He could see Ryan biting his lip from the corner of his eye, and he knew he should say something but he just couldn’t.

“Aw look at that, he’s suddenly turned all shy about his relationship” Zayn speaks out, breaking the silence of the room, and some of the tension.  
“If only it was like then when it’s just us, but then it’s all, Louis this, Louis that.” Niall adds and Harry hears a few chuckles from the audience which he takes as a good sign, finally looking up at them to see their reactions, most of them are smiling, encouraging smiles that reassure him, there’s a few other people with shocked faces as they stare at the back monitor and then there is a few vacant seats, that sadly weren’t empty when they came on.  
“Doesn’t look like you’re getting anything from Harry tonight, I think he’s spaced out on us, or maybe he’s just now realising just how cute the two of them are.” Liam says with a smile, just like the other 2 are sporting and Ryan smiles back before moving on with topics, mentioning a game that he wants to play that involves them 4; but Harry isn’t paying much attention, he’s thinking about a billion other things.

He’s thinking about Gary and how mad he’s going to be, he’s going to be madder than ever before and it could cause many consequences. He’s thinking about possible legal situations they might face due to contracts they’ve signed. He’s thinking about how he’s ultimately just came out, everyone will know within the hour that he’s not 100% straight, that he has a boyfriend, and there’s no guarantee weather the fans will stick around or not. And of course he’s thinking about Louis, who’s sat at home in England without access to this interview, who might find out about this entire thing because people start sending him stuff on twitter, I mean everyone knows who he is, because prior to this night he’s being Harry’s friend, but what if people suddenly start ambushing him? They could start spamming him with questions about their relationship, or with homophobic slurs and comments; he won’t know what’s hit him and Harry can’t contact him because the bastard that’s outed them has his phone.  
Harry’s not sure how he gets through the rest of the interview to be honest, he’s vaguely aware they’re playing a game to try win the audience some prizes; but he doesn’t really follow because of the thoughts swimming around in his mind. Luckily Ryan catches on that Harry isn’t really himself and only talks to him directly when he absolutely needs to, trying to keep the focus on the other 3 instead. 

Soon enough Harry has managed to sit through the interview and it’s ending, Ryan doing his last little bits before the boys are allowed of stage; and Harry isn’t really sure what to do with himself. He finds himself silently following the boys down the corridor and towards the green room, where he flops down face first on the sofa when he reaches it. Lou, Lux and Paul get up and leave pretty much straight away, assuming the boys needed to talk although Harry wasn’t sure he could right now, and just stayed with his face buried in the cushions.

He could hear them all talking in hushed tones by the door, he hears word such as ‘have we done the right thing?’ ‘should we phone someone to talk to him’ and ‘who do you thinks got the best shot of getting him to talk about it?’ but he wasn’t paying much attention; his head trying to figure out exactly what to do.  
He wants to call Louis, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get hold of him thanks to the stolen phone, and he might not be with El, or in their flat; plus he’s worried about how to explain to Louis that they are now an out couple, that they’ve being outed on live TV and there’s no going back. He thinks he also hears his band mates claim he needs Louis right now, and maybe they’re correct but he’s also abit too chicken to get up the courage to try contact Louis right now, he thinks he needs to really sort out what he’s going to say first, but then he’s worried about Louis being mad that Harry didn’t contact him immediately, since Louis is bound to find out the truth thanks to how quickly the fans spread there news on social networks.

He also considers calling his mum, she’s always being good at calming him down and reassuring him; but he’s not sure what good her words would do right now, how she could calm him down because no matter what, he is still finally out, he has still got to face Gary and everyone else; he can’t take that back.  
He’s also currently considering checking twitter and or tumblr, to see some fan reactions, and this is the most tempting of them all but also the one he knows will have the worst outcome, because he’ll just feel even worse when he see’s the hate; cause sure he believes a lot of fans will stick with him and the boys, but he knows they will also be homophobic fans, or just homophobic people in general who won’t like it and will send there hate.

To be honest, he’s starting to think that really, all he wants is Louis to be there, to wrap him up in a hug and promise him everything will be okay. Because phoning Louis won’t be the same, he’ll be worried as he tells Louis, and because Louis isn’t their in person, he’ll probably be really worried that Louis’ secretly pissed off at him.  
So he just lies on the sofa, thinking things through and listening to the boys talk about it when suddenly he’s hearing his name being called in a voice he knows with his life, and when he looks up there he is, walking through the door of the green room and straight to Harry, wrapping him up in his arms just like Harry really wanted and probably needed.  
Harry starts to feel his eyes welling up as he sits in Louis’ embrace, and he buries his head into Louis’ shoulders and screws up his eyes to try and stop the tears; but it doesn’t work and soon Louis’ arms are tightening around him as the tears fall, Louis rubbing his back to help sooth him while also whispering sweet nothings into his ear.  
Harry isn’t even sure why he’s actually crying, doesn’t really understand why this situation has caused him too because this is what they’ve being fighting for since he can remember, all he’s ever wanted was to be free and open about who he was and his relationship; yet here he was crying like a little baby.

Eventually the tears subsided, and after sitting in Louis’ embrace silently for another few minutes they finally pulled apart and Harry knew Louis would be wanting to talk about this, about everything; but Harry was still a little overwhelmed that Louis was actually here.

“How are you here?” he asked as he looked at his boyfriend sat opposite him, also realising his band mates were no longer in the room with him.  
“Zayn called me after my lecture ended this morning asking what time I finished, and when I told him my only other lesson today was my seminar 11-12 he asked if he could fly me over to Ireland to see you tonight; and of course I said yes, asked what it was about and he told me it was about us finally coming out and that you’d most likely need me after the interview; so I went to my seminar, then ran home, packed and over night bag and headed to Manchester Airport to catch the flight that the lads and Paul had secured for me.” Louis explained to Harry who just sat holding Louis’ hand like he never wanted to let go.

“I saw the interview H, watched it in the on my iPod in the hotel lobby before the car came to collect me. You’ve got nothing to worry about okay, it wasn’t that bad of a deal and it seemed to hardly bother anyone in the audience, sure it shocked them abit but they didn’t look like they hated you babe.” Louis told him, bringing his hand up to run through Harry’s curls soothingly.

“But what about management Lou? How are we possibly going to get away with this? They’re going to kill us.” Harry spoke out softly, his voice barely audible with how quiet it was.  
“Don’t worry about them okay, I will be by your side every step of the way and I won’t let them do anything to you Haz. Plus the boys must have something figured out by now, they said they were working on a way to get us out of this mess, and I don’t think they’d just dump you in at the deep end because they care too much about you love.” Louis told him, before leaning forward and pulling Harry back into an embrace, where the two of them sat wrapped around each other until the others finally returned.

“Hey, everything okay now?” Niall asked softly as him and the other boys sat down on the sofa opposite them.

“Yeah everything’s fine!” Harry told them, with a small smile as Louis joined his hand with Harry’s resting on his knee.

“Good, because we just heard that Gary and some of his team are on a flight over here right now to talk about what happened tonight.” Niall told him, and Harry stiffened which made Louis tighten his grip on Harry’s hand in comfort. 

“Look mate, all 3 of us are going to be with your two every step of the way, we aren’t just going to leave you two to clean up this mess on your own, we are part of this just as much as you are and besides, we have a plan so everything will turn out just fine.” Zayn explained, looking calm and collected which helped Harry out; and before Harry could get anything else out, Lou and Paul were returning, with Lux in Lou’s arms who got excited at the first sight of Louis who she hadn’t seen in a really long time; and Harry could feel every bit of worry and upset drain out of him as he watched one of his favourite people in the world interact with his favourite baby girl.  
-  
By the time Gary arrives Harry’s mood has rose considerably; they had being made to stay inside the green room as there was masses of paparazzi waiting for them and Gary had stated he needed to speak to them before they faced the public. So they’d made do with the space and spent the past hour having as much fun as possibly trying to make sure Harry’s mood increased, and being successful in doing so. 

Harry was currently sat on the sofa between Lou and Zayn, laughing at some story she was telling while keeping one eye on Louis who was currently laid across the floor on his back with Lux sat on his stomach while she had her dollies walk across his chest. He couldn’t help the feeling of pure love that filled him up as he watched the scene, watching Louis interact with Lux and making sure she was having a good time, which in turn made Lux look at him like he was made of gold or something similar – whatever babies of her age treasured – and it made him fill with the aching feeling of desire and hope; the hope that one day in the future that Louis will be laid on the floor of a cosy house with their son or daughter on his chest and a gold band around his finger. 

Lux immediately stops moving her dolls across Louis's chest as Gary walks in, and the whole room falls silent; Harry biting his lip as they all look at Gary not knowing what was about to happen. Harry watched from the corner of his eye as Louis picked Lux up off his chest and sat up, placing the little girl on his hip before standing up and coming to sit on the sofa between Harry and Lou who took Lux from him.

"I'd like to speak to the boys alone." Gary finally spoke his eyes looking at Harry with hardness as he stood with his arms by his side and his back up straight, making Harry gulp. Paul and Lou both nodded and stood up to leave them alone in the green room, both of them shooting apologetic looks as they leave; Gary then turned his attention to Louis and raised his eyebrow like he was waiting for him to also get up and leave. Louis just looked at him unfazed before shifting slightly closer to Harry so their bodies were pressed together.

"I'd like to speak to the boys alone!" He repeated with an annoyed tone as he stepped forward, Harry flinching slightly and Louis hand came to rest on his lower back.  
"This involves Louis just as much because it's his relationship too, he stays or we all go." Niall states, and Gary's face flares up for a second with what can only be described as anger before his poker face has returned and with a sigh he walks across the room to take a seat in the only vacant one left, his two sidekicks following him and standing either side of him. It was weird seeing him in this setting, without a table and papers in front of him.

"What you've done is very very stupid; you have gone against so many violations and are in so much legal trouble. You will need a lawyer because if you think you'll get out of this easily then you are so wrong." He spoke sternly and Harry momentarily froze, he knew this was going to be the deal. Louis’ arm came from around his back to take hold of his hand and squeeze it. But Harry could tell from his face that he was worried as well, he never wanted anything bad to happen with Harry or the band just so they could come out and be open. Sure the hiding was hard, but it was perfectly fine as long as nothing bad happened to Harry.

"Well you'll actually find that we've being working with a lawyer for around a month now, he's being looking into our contracts with the company and trying to find loopholes, and he finally found one so we haven't gone against your word, we haven't broken any contracts and are not in any trouble whatsoever." Zayn told him with a serious look on his face, which made Harry take his lip through his teeth, wondering what they've managed to figure out so this cannot be counted as breaking the contract, Louis grip had tightened on his hand indicating the elder was probably thinking the exact same thing.

"How the hell can you possibly say you haven't broken your contracts? It's a well known fact that you signed the contract and in it states that all information about your relationship must be approved and give the go ahead by us before it is leaked. But you sat on that stage and when shown a picture of these two together you talked about their relationship, that interview was live and all that information is out in the open, it can not be edited out. How can you possibly justify this?" Gary practically shouted, his face turning red from his anger and Harry was briefly scared he might hit someone or something.

"I will tell you how we justify this.” Zayn explains, pulling out a sheet of paper. “This explains everything that our lawyer solved for us; he has wrote here that our contracts state, “You must not talk any details about your romantic or personal lives that has not being approved by Modest!Managment. If questions are asked about relationship status before being approved you must refer yourself as single.” Zayn read out loud.

“Exactly, we did not give Harry the approval to confirm his relationship.” Gary exclaimed with an annoyed sigh and Harry wondered where on earth this was going.

“Yes, you didn’t give Harry the approval however Harry did not confirm or talk about his relationship with Louis. If you watch the interview back you will notice that it was actually only me, Niall and Liam that talked about Harry and Louis’ relationship; while Harry sat in his seat and didn’t mutter a sound. There is no where in our contracts that state we are unable to talk about each other relationship without your approval. The contract only covers talking about our own relationships, but not each others. Therefore by me, Niall and Liam talking about Harry’s relationship we have not broke a single contract and cannot be sued or whatever other legal activity you were going to try and press.” Zayn explains, and Gary’s mouth literally drops open before he tries to regain himself and talk, but instead he ends up opening it and closing it several times, making him look like a goldfish; before deciding it was a lost cause, that they’d outsmarted him and therefore he got up and left the room, the girls hurrying out after him.

“I am so gobsmacked right now, I thought the loophole was going to be that the photos had being leaked accidently and had nothing to do with you.” Louis stated after a minute or so of silence as everyone took in what had just being said, Harry was still a little overwhelmed that something so simple was the loophole.

“Oh yeah that reminds me!” Zayn says, reaching into this pocket again to retract something. “I believe this is yours!” he says to Louis handing over the phone that Louis’ was sure he’d lost; the phone that contained all his pictures, several which had being leaked onto the internet. Louis’ mouth just sat slightly open as he reached over to take it back.  
“What the, how the, huh?” he mumbled, not making much sense but the boys seemed to get the gist.

“Well once we found out about the loophole we decided we needed a way to get the topic to come up in an interview so we could finally let you guys be free; and we thought if they simply asked the question about our relationships Harry would jump straight in with his usual answer; but we needed something that wouldn’t make him immediately reply.  
This was when Liam thought of the picture, thought that if a picture of you two was released and shown in an interview then that might make Harry freeze for a moment and delay his reply. But we didn’t want one that could be passed off as you two being just friends, so we needed an intimate one of you guys and we didn’t obviously own one.  
So Niall here snuck away Harry’s phone while we were at his place and copied down the number to your friend Eleanor. And then when we left Harry’s place we sent her a text explaining that it was us 3 and that could we ring her because we had a plan on helping you two be free; and we rang her up and we came up with the plan that she’d try and get hold of a few intimate photos and send them to us.

Then you had your accident and this whole plan was pushed to one side until you ultimately got better, and we then decided that we’d announce it on the Late Show interview so we asked Eleanor to try and get some sneaky pictures of you two while Harry stayed at your place, but she wasn’t able to; so when you guys went on holiday for the weekend and took loads of photos we figured this was the golden opportunity to get a photo of you guys so we came up with the plan that Eleanor would send us your phone and your pass code and we’d get some pictures and “leak them”. 

So on the day your phone got stolen, Eleanor had slipped it out of your pocket while you were in the lecture, and then when you were doing something else she leaked a photo for us before she sent your phone to us for us to leak some; because by the time we got it then it’d be too close to the show and we wanted like a mini build up.  
Plus, Harry having the brilliant idea to let management know that your phone had being stolen the day before the interview helped make the leaked photos even more believable, and then this morning when we touched down in Ireland we sent of those two images to who ever is in charge and told them to mention it in the interview. Explaining it was a exclusive that had never being mentioned before easily persuaded them, and that’s how we got to where we are now.” Zayn explained to them, and honestly both Harry and Louis were feeling slightly shell shocked at it all. Couldn’t believe the boys had gone to so much trouble just to help them out.

“I honestly don’t know what to say, I’m kinda speechless right now, I guess just a big thank you.” Louis eventually says from Harry’s side, and Harry just nods in agreement, feeling speechless like the older boy.

Paul walked in a few moments later with a small smile on his lips, and Harry hoped that if they ended up getting rid of Modest then they’d be able to keep Paul, and Lou, and everyone else on their team that they generally got on well with and enjoyed the company of.

“It’s time to get back to the hotel boys, now it’s kind of crazy out there, a lot of paparazzi and fans have turned up after watching the interview. But we don’t want you stopping for any of it; we just want you to get into the car as quickly and smoothly as possible okay. Tonight is not the time to stop and chat to fans, which can happen any other time.” Paul told them with a nod, before they were standing up and following him out; Harry was nervous about facing everyone; and his basic instinct was to tighten his grip on Louis’ hand.

Maybe it wasn’t a smart idea to show PDA immediately after revealing his sexuality and hidden boyfriend, but he was sure he’d crumble without Louis’ support, he needed him to help him get through those crowds, and Louis wasn’t even attempting to pull away from his grip, if he was honest it was like Louis was holding on just as tight. Plus this would be the first time Louis was facing a crowd this big and he needed to make sure it didn’t overwhelm the older boy too much.

The screams from the fans could be heard from inside the building as they approached the exit, and they knew the amount they were about to face would be one of the biggest yet; and when Paul pulled the door open the flashes and screams were both blinding and deafening. 

Security guards who worked at the studios stepped in to help the boys get out since Paul had being the only one accompanying them down to the studio as they didn’t think they’d be a big turn out. 5 security guards crowded around them, with Paul leading up front and getting the boys out the studio and towards the cars that had pulled up which had being completely surrounded.

The other 3 went first, following Paul with Harry and Louis in the back; Harry’s grip with Louis’ hand tightened as they finally left the studio and entered the claustrophobic group of fans and paparazzi, the flashes getting even more intense as they realised that Louis was with Harry and the questions started up.

“IS THIS YOUR SECRET FELLA HARRY?”

“WHY DID IT TAKE YOU SO LONG TO ADMIT YOUR SEXUALITY?”

“WHATS IT LIKE TO BE THE GAY BOY BAND MEMBER?”

“COME ON HARRY, SHOW OFF THE BEAU FOR THE FANS!”

Finally they had reached the car, and Harry pulled Louis in front of him to get the older boy into the car before himself; climbing in straight after and taking the only seat left beside Louis who was still holding his hand, Harry no longer sure if it was to support him or Louis, but he wasn’t going to let go.  
They didn’t talk much on the car ride back to the hotel, since most the stuff they needed to talk about was more suited for the privacy of the hotel room. So they sat in pretty much silence with their hands locked the entire way, adding bits to the boys conversation every now and then so the boys didn’t feel like they were being ignored.

The hotel was also surrounded by paparazzi and fans when they pulled up, although there wasn’t as many as the studio; and there was plenty of hotel staff trying to keep them at bay and stop them from blocking the entrance. Although as soon as their car pulled up the ciaos grew, the fans screaming and pushing trying to get a view as well as the paparazzi. Several other members of their team had shown up to help Paul and the hotel staff get the boys safely inside, once again under the instruction they were not allowed to interact with anyone and they needed to get inside immediately.

Once again Harry didn’t leave go of Louis’ hand as he followed the boys and security into the hotel, the paparazzi and fans going crazy at the sight of the older boy once again, and Harry knew they’d be all over the internet within the next half hour but right now he wasn’t bothered.

Eventually they were inside the hotel and they were being ushered through the lobby, the team eager to get the boys upstairs and away from the attention, assuring Louis his luggage had being delivered since he’d previously left it at reception to get to Harry quicker. The lift ride up didn’t take long, and although they’d be originally planning a movie night, the boys immediately headed to their own rooms leaving Harry and Louis to themselves.

They entered the room that Harry had being moaning about being to big for just him earlier; Louis’ overnight bag was sat at the wardrobe but everything else was exactly as Harry had left it, and it felt nice to be back to some form of normality.

“How you feeling H?” Louis asked, letting go of Harry’s hand and slowly walking into the main part of the room with the younger boy following close behind.  
“I should be asking you that, you’ve just being mobbed for the very first time, and it was one of the worst we’ve every faced tonight.” Harry replied, sitting down beside Louis on the bed, practically sitting on his knee he was that close.

“I’m fine Harry, I care and worry more about you than some silly flashing camera and fans trying to catch a glimpse of me. So how are you babe? Honestly?” Louis spoke softly, reaching out to once again link their hands together, running his thumb over Harry’s knuckles to comfort him.

“I’m not really sure Lou; I was scared and worried when it was initially out there, but I think I was worried about your reaction, worried that you’d be upset that you’d being outed without your knowledge and suddenly weren’t just my friend, but my boyfriend to the world. And then when you turned up at the studio and reassured me everything was fine, then I began to worry about management and what they’d do. That really scared me, but it turned out it was something so simple and we had successfully avoided breaking the contract; and now I’m not sure what I’m feeling, weather im relieved this is all over or overwhelmed by it all.” Harry told him, looking down at his lap, feeling shy suddenly.

“Hey babe, it’s perfectly fine to feel weird, you’ve just come to the world, I doubt anyone would be feeling perfectly fine in this situation. It’s going to take some time to adjust and for the fans to also adjust but everything will eventually work itself out, and me, your mum, sister, Robin, the boys, we are going to be by your side every step of the way.” Louis told him, break one hand from where it sat linked with Harry’s so he could bring it up and run it through the boys curls, a action that made Harry feel relaxed and comforted.

“Why don’t we get your mind of it eh? Doing something fun, maybe with the other lads as well?” Louis says after a minute of silence; and Harry likes the idea, wouldn’t mind getting his mind of everything and just spending the night with his 4 favourite boys in the world.

“Well me and the lads had being thinking about having a movie night, we could always still have it.” Harry suggested, and Louis agreed straight away.  
They decided to change into their pyjamas so they’ll be comfortable, Louis’ still wearing the clothes he put on this morning before Uni, and Harry still has the outfit he wore for the interview on; so they quickly begin changing, and as Harry’s taking off his jacket, Louis notices the cling film wrapped around his arms.

“Did you go and get another tattoo and didn’t think to mention it to me?” Louis asked, walking over wearing just his boxer since he’d being in the middle of changing. Louis had always being a fan of Harry’s tattoo’s, and although he’d at first being against getting his own body inked, he’d recently being considering getting something done.

“Oh yeah, it’s the words ‘Things I Can’ and ‘Things I Can’t’ and it was suppose to represent management, and how they control the majority of things. All my tattoos for you are on the ‘Things I Can’t’ arm because our relationship represented that, but now that’s all out the window thanks to us coming out the same day I get them.” Harry explains as he holds his arms out for Louis to inspect the new ink.

“Yeah but just because we’ve come out doesn’t mean they don’t still hold significance, they still represent the struggles we faced and everything you had to go through before you were able to be your true self.” Louis says, stroking the cling film softly, not wanting to hurt Harry in anyway by pressing too hard on the sensitive skin.  
“Yeah you’re right, just seems ironic how I get them the same day I get to finally come out.” Harry chuckles, Louis joining in moments later. They then go back to getting changed into the pyjamas ready for the movie night. Once they’re changed, Harry tells Louis to go round up the other boys and get everything ready as he wants to quickly give his mum a ring because he knows she’ll be worried sick.

Louis goes ahead, and Harry spends 5 minutes on the phone with his mum as she reassures him that everyone is there for him and not to worry too much and that if he needs to come home then he’s more than welcome. Once he’s finished on the phone, his curiosity gets the better of him and he clicks on the twitter app.  
He’s 7 of the 10 trends, and none of them are really negative trends thankfully.

Harry Styles  
#LGBTSupportHarry  
#DirectionersSupportHarryandLouis  
Louis Tomlinson  
#harryandlouisarelarry  
Harry Styles’ sexuality  
#harryisgay

The tweets on his timeline aren’t that bad either, most tweeting their support, and when he sees some nasty comment he does the smart thing and unfollows them. He spends a few minute doing this before he locks his phone once again, knowing the boys will start wondering where he is if he doesn’t get their soon; so he pockets the phone and leaves the hotel room, heading across the hall to Zayn’s, knocking twice before waiting until Niall opens the door for him.  
The others are spread out across the two double beds in Zayn’s room, and Harry isn’t sure why Zayn has a double room, but he doesn’t question it and instead joins Louis where he’s sat on the one by the window, the other 3 have taken the other bed. Louis throws his arm around Harry’s shoulder straight away, and Harry tucks himself into the older boy’s side, feeling like the smallest for once.

Zayn presses play on the remote and Bridget Jones Diary starts, it’s one of Harry’s favourites and the movie is a feel good type and he has a feeling he won’t be feeling so gloomy for long. Half way through the movie, Harry looks around the room, at the four boys laughing at Bridget’s antics and for now he feels fine; it might not be all smooth sailing, he might face some struggles and he might come across some nasty hate; but at this moment he feels fine, like nothing can ruin this moment. So subtly he gets his phone from his pocket, tweeting a message out to the fans before turning the device off and snuggling back into Louis, ready to watch the fight between Mark and Daniel.  
@Harry_Styles: I’m sorry for keeping it a secret for so long, I wish I hadn’t, but I’m glad you know the truth and feel very happy right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and this is it, the last chapter of HFTM is complete. Just the epilogue is left now. I'm sorry for the wait, Uni has kept me busy, and I also didn't want to rush it since it was the last chapter so I wanted it to be good. Hopefully it was.
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who has stuck by me and this story, I posted the prologue 10 months ago so I know it's being a long wait and has took me long between chapters many times. But you've stuck by it so thank you.
> 
> I will post the epilogue as soon as I can, and i'll make a bigger notes and thanks then.


	19. Chapter Seventeen: The Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Louis' birthday and the boys do a special interview

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is the epilogue after months of waiting. I am sorry it took so long to get this out, I just couldn't set my ind on one place/time to set the epilogue in. I hope this one I finally choose was okay, and I think I will be writing one shots set in this universe in the future, but I got a few other ideas first.
> 
> Also, somethings in this chapter have obviously being changed from how they originally happened, thats simply to fit in with this universe, not because I forgot how the events happened.

It had being a pretty weird month and a half for Louis, after the big coming out on the late late show the other month his life just hasn't being the same, despite him trying to keep it as same as possible. There had being the perks, the fact he could now being seen in public with Harry and holding his hand was one, the fact that it didn't matter if Harry was spotted arriving or leaving Louis' apartment, that they could tweet each other and Harry could much to his delight post cutesy pictures on Instagram of them. They'd being able to go out on an official date, Harry had taken him to his favourite restaurant, Rosso, when he'd had time off after their mini trip to America; and it didn't matter that paparazzi had gathered to take pictures.

 

It wasn't all sunshines though, the hate he received wasn't exactly delightful, every day he would see tweets in his mentions about how he was a 'stupid faggot, that had spread his faggot disease to Harry' or how 'your just a fling, Harry will be done with you within the month' and they did hurt, and were unpleasant but he was trying to block them all out and ignore them like Harry had told him too, but sometimes that was easier said than done. He thinks he's handling it better, and hopefully someday in the future he'll be able to see the hate and just roll his eyes.

 

His follower count on his twitter had gone up drastically was well, he was now almost at 3 million followers which showed just how popular Harry was, but he felt weirded out, wondered why on earth 3 million people were interested in the tweets of a University Student, he didn't even tweet all that much about Harry really, just the odd time Harry tweeted him would he tweet him b

ack, most of his tweets were complaining about his studies, or chatting with Eleanor - who's follow count was also nearing a million, just for the simple fact of knowing Louis.  
He'd also being approached in the street a few times, just some one direction fans wanting to get a picture with him, or ask about Harry. He always declined as he didn't want to get involved in stuff like that. When he'd being walking about the University he had also noticed several times a couple of first years looking at him and then whispering, which made him self-conscious but he once again tried to ignore them.

 

The paparazzi was also something new he had to deal with, he'd being out with Harry a few times and also visited him for some performances, including their biggest one at MSG a few weeks back, and of course, this had attracted the attention of the paps. It had never being as crazy as it had being back on the day they’d came out, but then it had just being men with camera’s swamping them, surrounded them from everywhere. Now it was men with camera’s chasing them down the street, shouting things at them as they attempted to gain their attention, Harry always kept his cool, showing to Louis his years of practise. He always tried to keep Louis’ attention on him, keeping the conversation going or simply whispering sweet nothings too him as long as his mind didn’t stray to the paparazzi.

 

Despite all these changes in his life, Louis was still determined to live his life as close to as it used to be as possible. He didn’t want anything to change drastically, he still wanted to go to his lectures and seminars, he still wanted to spend nights in with Eleanor and nights out with her and other friends, and he still wanted to make time for his family and Harry; and so far he’d being successful in doing so. He’d finished University for Christmas on Wednesday, which meant he was now back in Doncaster and ready to celebrate his holidays and birthday with his family. The way the MSG concert had fallen had made it also possible for Louis to be in America and at the show to watch his boy perform and still get back to celebrate the end of year by going out to the final event at the SU with Eleanor and some other people from their course.

 

So Louis was currently at home with his mum, Dan and four siblings, ready for another night in, maybe eating a takeaway and watching a movie together before the weekend. Harry was back up in London for some last minute work he had before the band finished for Christmas. They wouldn’t be spending it together because Louis’ wanted to be with his family and Harry wanted to be with his, he already didn’t get too much free time to see them, and Christmas was the one time of the year dedicated for that. But Harry had arranged to come down on Christmas Eve so they could do something together for Louis’ birthday, and Louis would drive down to Cheshire at some point during Christmas and New Year’s. Plus they hadn’t made any plans on how they’d be bringing in the New Year, so they might end up spending that together.

 

He had just settled down on the sofa with his siblings, ready to watch the bbc show Pointless which they seemed pretty obsessed with, Louis had always enjoyed The Chase more, but what the hell; and the doorbell rang. His mum was somewhere upstairs sorting something out and shouted down for someone one to answer it, and when the girls didn’t make to move Louis saw that as a meaning that he needed to answer the door; so with a sigh he once again got up and headed for the door.

 

Eleanor was on the other side, a bright smile on her face as she stood their bundled in layers of warm clothing, perfect for the weather they had right now. Louis wasn’t sure why his best friend was here in Doncaster, when they’d said goodbye two days ago when he headed back and she headed to her dads place in Manchester; they’d promised to text and see each other in the New Year since they rarely saw one a other during holidays as they lived a good distance apart, with Eleanor usually staying with her mum in London.

 

“Hey El, what brings you to Doncaster?” he asks, letting her into the house and giving her a hug; despite his surprise it was always nice to see his best friend.

 

“Well, I’m planning on headed back to London tomorrow, it’s a little boring at my dad’s place and so I decided to just swap the presents now and celebrate the holiday’s with my mum. But then I was thinking how we didn’t really do anything for your birthday, I know we said at the festive fling we didn’t need to do anything and we had a drink for it. But it’s your 21st, and so you deserve to do something without it being dedicated to Christmas, so I decided to come down and we can go out tonight, we could go to a club or something, and we could go for pre-drinks at the cocktail bar you went on about. You raved about it for weeks and I’d love to see what all the fuss was about.” She told him as she separated from the hug, he noticed her cheeks were flushed from the cold so ushered her into the warmth of the living room, his sisters looking up from the TV to say hello before they returned their attention the TV screen. Louis pulling Eleanor onto the sofa with him.

 

“I don’t know El, like I said I didn’t want to make it a big deal or anything. Plus that cocktail bar is rather fancy, we’d have to get all dressed up.” Louis told her, biting his lip, he did fancy going out for a birthday drink, but at the same time he didn’t. He loved going out and having fun in clubs, dancing and having a laugh with friends, but he also loved staying in all night and cuddling up on the sofa watching films with the family.

 

“Oh honestly Louis, you deserve to get done up for your 21st birthday for god sake, stop being such an old granddad and go out with Eleanor and have some fun.” Jay said, coming downstairs holding the wash basket and smirk. Louis rolled his eyes at his mum, you’d expect mum’s to try keep their son’s inside, not want them out partying and getting drunk. But not his mum, she encouraged it if anything, encouraged him to hold onto his youth as long as possible. Louis had often wondered if it was because she didn’t have the chance to do this kind of stuff, since she’d had him at 18 right out of college and had to bring him up by himself. Even the two years of marriage to Troy when Louis was alive didn’t give her any more help, he apparently just sat around all day doing nothing, leaving his mum to everything.  
“Ugh fine, but if I get so drunk tonight that I come home at 4am singing Taylor Swift you only have yourselves to blame.” Louis replied, and Jay just smiled while Eleanor squealed and clapped her hands together.

 

-

 

Since Eleanor wanted to not only go out for cocktails but do some pub/club crawling she made Louis be dressed and ready for 8pm. Louis told her this was far too early, that it wouldn’t even start to fill up until at least 10, but she was having none of it. She also made sure they wore pretty fancy clothes, rifling through Louis’ wardrobe and picking out black skinny jean, black shirt and dark grey blazer to match her outfit of black dress and gold blazer; she pinned her hair back in a messy bun and he styled his into a quiff rather than leaving it in the normal, fringe over forehead style.

 

Eleanor would be staying over the night, there wasn’t much room in his bedroom since his bed took up most of the space, but she fit her bags into the corner and she’d simply spend the night in his bed. When they went downstairs to wait for their taxi, his family were curled up on the sofa watching Tangled, and Louis kind of wished he was part of that but he knew he’d have a fun time with Eleanor tonight.

 

After saying goodbye to his family and the taxi had arrived they headed out, giving the taxi driver the name of the cocktail bar and then attempting to work out how much their half of the fare would cost. They didn't seem to be many people out and about, and Louis new it was probably because it was so early, everyone would be inside either starting there pre-drinks or starting to get ready.

 

When they reached the bar it was also dead, unlike the times when Louis had previously being when theirs had being people gathered outside the entrance having a smoke, bouncers were not stood by the door, instead they all seemed to be hundred together in the inside. They handed over the money and the taxi raised his eyebrows, like he was wondered why on earth they'd picked this place of all places; Louis was beginning to think the same thing. They exited the taxi, double checking they had phones, money and ID and then headed towards the front entrance of the bar, Louis was sure they'd be the only ones in, but El seemed eager, babbling on about some cocktail she wanted and Louis couldn't help but smile at his friends excitement.

 

The bouncers checked their ID before ushering them through, smiles on their face like they were pleased to finally have some customers. Louis was sure it was a boring first few hours for them before they finally started filling out, he'd being doing several shifts at the pub recently, just to get some cash to pay for Christmas Presents, and they usually gave him the ones that were hard to get people to cover because they had hardly any customers and didn't want to be just stood around.

 

Louis had being in the bar more than enough and directed Eleanor towards the main part where he knew everybody would gather and where Eleanor would get the cocktail that she had being raving on about. But when they arrived another bodyguard was waiting in front of the main part, with the doors closed.

 

“Sorry, but due to some technical difficulties, they’ve moved the main bar upstairs to the function room, if you just go up the stairs and it’s the only door up there so it’s easy to find.” The man tells them with no facial expression, and Louis is desperate to try make him laugh, but he doesn’t tempt it, just heads upstairs with Eleanor. He had known there was a function room up here that people could hire out for parties and events but he didn’t know that if something went wrong downstairs they could just use this as the normal bar.

 

He couldn’t hear anything, not even music as they headed up, but he’d heard they often made functions rooms soundproof so that way the party doesn’t either cause too much havoc or noise with the people downstairs; which he guess seems pretty logic.

 

“What’s your favourite cocktail to get then Lou?” Eleanor asks him and bringing him out of his thoughts.

 

“Erm… I’m not sure, I quite like the Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri or Tequila Sunrise, but I might try something new and see what it’s like. I saw one

called the golden apple on the list last time so I might try that one.” Louis tells her, linking his arm through hers when they reach the top, preparing to walk into a desert bar.  
“SURPRISE!!” rings through his ears, and he’s not going to lie he’s absolutely shits himself, jumping about a mile in the air as his heartbeat picks up spread. He’s always laughed when he’s seen people walk into a surprise party, claimed that surely it’s all put on and they know what’s coming, but he honestly had no idea he was being pulled into a surprise birthday bash

.  
The room has being decorated with balloons and banners, a huge one hung up along the back wall reading ‘Happy 21st Birthday Louis’ just above the food table. The place is packed with familiar faces, friends from back home and Uni, and family members as well, he can see his grandparents sat on the side-lines with huge smiles, and he can guess this is why his mum was so eager for him to go out because she knew this was happening; and when she arrived he was definitely going to have a word with her.

 

He turned to Eleanor, about to ask her how she pulled it off, but she must have read his mind because she was shaking her head, pointing over his shoulder with a huge shit eating grin on her face; so he turned back around and there weaving his way through the crowd was Harry, also wearing a shit eating grin as he headed there way. The music had started now and everyone began dancing, chatting and socializing as Louis stepped forward to meet his boyfriend, not being able to help the smile that lit up his own face.  
He wraps his arms around Harry’s neck with the younger boys going around his waist and pulling him closer. This was a common way they greeted one another, and Louis always loved it, being this close to Harry, being able to just breathe in the younger boys sent and bury his face into Harry’s neck or chest. He honestly loved it. When they pulled apart, Louis leaned it for a quick kiss before pulling apart complete in order to question his boyfriend’s secret planning’s.

 

“So, why have I just turned up at a surprise birthday party for myself?” he asks with a smirk, taking Harry’s hand in his own ready to start circulating the room.

 

“Because everyone deserves to do something for their 21st birthday, come on it’s the biggest birthday ever and you were going to miss doing anything in favour of sitting at home on your bum. What happened to the party animal Louis?” Harry said, a small chuckle escaping his lips as they began making their way around the room.

 

“Some guy made him all soppy and domestic I think.” Louis replied with a cheeky smile, feeling relaxed and content.

 

-

 

The party was amazing it really was, Harry and Eleanor had gone all out. Everyone he cared about was there, including his parents and their new respective others who were able to be civil with one another all night. His friends from University had come down, including this mysterious Max guy of El’s, who Louis had being dying to meet since he was sure his best friend was hooking up with him, until they met and Louis realised the guy was as camp as Christmas. But he seemed like a good lad, and they had a laugh when they spent about 15 minutes together.

 

There was a few other friends of Eleanor’s there such as Alana who Louis had met previously and had a few good nights out with her and El, as well as finding out the fact that Alana and Harry already knew each other thanks to some mutual friend of there’s, so they left her with a promise to all go out for a night out, including Harry.

 

Niall, Liam and Zayn were also there, not wanting to miss the opportunity to party, and Louis considered the guys to also be friends of his since he got on well with them and had their numbers in his phone. Liam had brought Danielle along, the two had recently got back together and so Louis guessed they were making up for lost time, and even though he didn’t get on too well with her she got on okay with Eleanor which meant she wasn’t totally on her own.

 

Zayn had brought Perrie along as well, Louis knew that both of them were desperate to spend as little free time as they had together. Louis always thought it was hard for him and Harry to spend time apart, but at least with them Louis didn’t do much apart from attend Uni, which gave him enough spare time that he was able to see Harry without waiting too long; especially when he was in London,. Whereas with Zayn and Perrie they were both touring, promoting etc. So a lot of them time they weren’t free at the same time; whenever Zayn might have a few days off, Perrie and the girls would be in America or somewhere similar, and vice versa. But they managed to work it out, and saw each other as much as possible, which Louis guessed was why Perrie was also here tonight. Not that he minded at all, he loved Perrie. He’d met her for the first time at the MSG gig and they’d got on like a house on fire, she was so quirky and had the best sense of humour that had left Louis in stitches so it was lovely too see her once again.

 

Stan and his friends were there of course, they couldn’t not be really, with Stan living in Doncaster still and there slightly mutual make up when Stan sort of apologised for the things he’d said about Harry. He was still a massive suck up, trying to worm his way into meeting Harry like that would magically make him cool or popular in anyway. Tonight was the first time Stan was meeting Harry, and Louis wanted to laugh at the way his eyes seemed to bulge out his head when he noticed Harry by Louis’ side. He didn’t do anything drastic though, just shook his hand and told him it was nice to meet him. Louis pretty sure Harry picked up on the fact Stan was a little star struck, but he didn’t mention it.

 

His mum, sisters and Dan had arrived about half an hour after Louis, smirks on their faces as they hugged both Louis and Harry. Daisy and Phoebe demanded dances from both from both of them, dragging them to the middle of the dance floor and making them dance to Katy Perry and Taylor Swift. Lottie and Fizzy had also stolen the boys for one dance as well as Louis’ grandma’s and Jay.

 

He danced with Eleanor as well, pretending to waltz to some random song but ending up tripping over their own feet and just laughing the entire 3 minutes so many seconds. He and Harry danced as well, Louis realising that they’d never actually visited a club together, and when they’d gone to parties they’d never being any dancing so neither were sure what to do; they just ended up swaying to the music with their arms around one another. They knew often couples liked to grind or whatever when dancing in clubs, but this wasn’t a club and he had his family there, included an 80 year old grandma and 8 year old pair of sisters.

 

When it was time for cake, Louis found out that was another surprise Harry had up his sleeve. He’d ordered one of those big, fancy decorative ones from that cake store he’s previously raved about. It’s a dark red coloured 3 tier cake, with the wording Louis 21 stuck to the front in a brighter red, as well as a half Louis figurine half red power rangers stuck to the top and icing stars coming out. It did look magnificent and he almost didn’t want to cut it open to hand pieces out. But he reluctantly did, after he’d pulled in both Harry and Eleanor to get a picture with him behind the cake.

 

He made sure he saved both the wording and the small figurine for himself, and he and Harry snagged most of the stars as well, but it was Louis’ cake so he was initialled to the best parts anyway. The party went on until around midnight, when the place closed and everyone started leaving; Louis and his family stayed till last alongside Harry and Eleanor who would both be crashing at Louis’ place. Lottie having kindly agreed to let El stay in her bedroom since she got on well with the older girl, and Louis being only in the box room would’ve made it fairly tight having three people all together.

 

They had to tidy everything away as well, and find some way of transporting the humongous amount of presents home; seriously Louis had never received so many, and the current pile didn’t even include any from his family, Eleanor or Harry. But once they were tidying up they were ready to head back to Louis’ place; Zayn had text Harry a little after him and the boys had left to let them know that paparazzi had somehow caught onto the fact that Harry and the boys were attending Louis’ party and were therefore waiting outside the building.

 

Louis had made his family go first, knowing that the paparazzi would have no clue who they were and know the difference between them and regular punters of the bar downstairs, which had being opened after Louis’ arrival. Harry had said Louis could also go down without Harry if he wished since that’s who the paparazzi really wanted; but Louis’ knew that the paps knew his face anyway, and if they exited separately would probably have a field day spreading rumours about their relationship being on the rocks, so therefore decided to stay behind with Harry, as well did Eleanor. This would be the second time El was faced with paparazzi, and Louis hoped she coped just as well as she did last time.

 

When the taxi had rung to let them know it was here they headed downstairs, like Louis always did when faced with paparazzi he placed his hand in Harry’s, this time he did the same, but also grabbed El’s hand with his free one so they could brace the camera’s together.

 

The flashes hit them as soon as the door opened, the shouts and clicks filling their eyes as they attempted to leave the bar and head towards the taxi. Louis felt Eleanor’s hand tighten in his own and knew how she felt, but Harry was able to guide them through the paparazzi with practiced ease, ignoring everything they were shouting, including the ones shouting about threesomes and orges. Eventually they reached the taxi, climbing into the back seat with a relieved sigh.

 

“God, I don’t know how you handle that Harry, it’s insane.” Eleanor said after they’d told the driver the address and managed to drive out the mass of paparazzi.  
“Trust me it’s being much worse, and I mean you never really get used to it, but as time goes on your grow more accustomed to them and learn the best ways to handle them, which is pretty much just trying to ignore them and block them out the best you can.” Harry explains, before he starts playing with Louis’ fingers where his hand is rested in Harry’s lap. Louis staring down at the tattooed words inked into Harry’s lower arm where he’d rolled his jacket sleeves up.

 

-

 

They’d pre-recorded an interview with Barbara Walters a few weeks back after being listed on her 10 most fascinating people of 2012; and today was the day it was finally released. The boys had love filming their interview with her as it had given them the chance to reflect on their time in the band, as well as their lives right now. Plus they’d found her to be a very fascinating and interesting interviewer herself.

 

Louis was currently sat on the hotel bed with the TV turned onto ABC ready to watch the interview, he was in America with the lads as they were due to perform on The X Factor USA finale, and with Louis having finished for Christmas, Harry had asked him if he’d like to accompany him to America and Louis had jumped at the idea. He hadn’t being to America that many times, but every time he had, he’d enjoyed it. Plus this time they were in LA, whereas for the MSG gig they’d being in New York; so this give Louis the chance to do some more exploring and also buy those last minute Christmas presents.

 

The boys had already headed out to the final, their performance wasn’t until later but they had to do the entire red carpet and backstage stuff first; Harry had offered Louis the chance to come with them and chill backstage until they’d done the performance but Louis had decided to just stay in the hotel instead, his arm was throbbing anyway, despite the amount of cream which was soaked into it, and he was pretty comfortable with watching the Barbara Walters TV show anyway before turning it over to watch their performance.

 

The interview was supposed to focus on basically what One Direction was and how they’d become such a huge success in only 2 and a half years. It starts with Barbara having them all introduce themselves and zoning in on one little detail of them. When it’s Harry’s turn to introduce Barbara zones in on his tattoos and the multiple different ones he’s got, she asks if they all mean anything because many of them just seem like doodles or have randomly being tattooed on as a spur of the moment kind of situation, Harry just tells her that they all have different meanings and that the people closest to him knew the means and who they were dedicated to, Louis can’t help the smile that spreads across his face.

 

Once the introductions were over and she’d mentioned some of their success once again, the topic changed to how they felt when they were put together, weather they’d being excited about being put in a group, or would’ve preferred to stay as solo artists. The boys told Barbaraabout how they’d entered the show to progress as far into it as possible, so therefore if being put into a group meant they could advance to the next stage they were all for it.

 

They then talked about the insane fans, about how different girls in different countries acted, like the ones in Sweden who pressed their bare boobs against the windows of the car. Once they were finished talking about the fans, there love lives came up of course; Barbara first asked them who was in a relationship, all of them putting up their hands apart from Niall, who was only casually seeing Amy right now. But once the conversation had turned to relationships Louis knew Harry’s sexuality was going to be brought up.

 

“So Harry, last month you finally came out and announced you were in a relationship with a male rather than female. What gave you the courage to finally announce something so big regarding your sexuality?” Barbara asked, and Louis watched waiting for his boyfriend to answer. Harry still found it awkward and weird getting ask about his relationship with Louis as it was such a new topic, he’d spent the past 2 years learning how to not mention Louis or his sexuality so it was weird that he was finally able to talk about it without the worries of modest in his mind.

 

“I always wanted to be as open as possible with my fans because I believe that they deserve that after everything they give to us, we know that without them then we would not be in this current position we are, we can only keep going for as long as they wanted. However with the situation on my sexuality it was always a bit of a sensitive matter and discussion, one which had to be planned and talked through. It wasn’t a matter of decided I wanted to come out and then doing so that same day; there was a lot to take in and consider.

 

For one was the fact that despite it being much more common and accepted in today’s society, there is still plenty of homophobia in the world and so of course I need to make sure that I’d be able to handle receiving those kind of comments, because although they say you need to have a backbone in this industry, and you need to be able to take critics on the chin and everything, you can still receive comments and they can hurt you and make you feel bad so I had to make sure I was fully prepared for that as well.

 

Another factor of course was the boys, you do hear about certain acts and artists that come out and their music does stop selling; and for me, it’s not just about my own career, it’s about the boys career as well, my individual actions and decisions can impact them and their careers so I had to make sure that they were okay with everything and that they were fully prepared for what would happen.

 

Finally I also needed to obviously consider my boyfriend, I mean with him being a University Student he’s not use to the fame and attention that I’m used to; and with the situation in which I came from, the normal everyday boy to the xfactor, I know how overwhelming it can all get at times and that it can be a lot for people coming in from the outside. Louis doesn’t want the “celebrity” lifestyle which is why he choose the academic route, he wanted to study at University and be the normal Uni student, I don’t want to be the reason he doesn’t get this experience.

 

Also, it’s the same situation as myself that Louis faces with the possibility of homophobia, he’s never being ashamed of himself or his sexuality just like myself, but like everything, it’s different when it involves millions of people; and with Louis he hasn’t being through the stuff I have, he hasn’t learnt how you have to just let these comments online goes past and get on with your life without it affecting you, I am still learning and I’ve had two years longer than him.” Harry explains and Louis can’t help but smile, just like he always does when Harry speaks.

 

Barbara simply nods and moves on with the interview, and Louis can’t help but glance down at his arm, the stinging was still their but seeing the crisp, black ink he knows it was totally worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this story is officially over, I can't honestly believe it to be honest, I've being writing this for over a year, and I'll be sad to let it go, but I'm happy to be moving on to other projects.
> 
> Once again thank you so much to everyone who has left kudos, comments and bookmarks, it really means a lot because I haven't being that great with updating. But thanks for sticking with me. I don't really know what else to say, but i will reply to any comments or questions you may have; and like I say, I doubt this will be the end of stories in this universe. I think I have grown to fond of the way these characters are to let them go so easily.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first chaptered fic and i've already been posting it on my tumblr for a few weeks now. So the next chapter will be posted later tonight, and I know this is a really short chaptered, it'll get better and longer I promise. This is literally a mini intro to the story.


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